Saturday, March 14, 2009
Devils top Eagles
ATLANTA -- Duke won a game and broke a record.
Third-seeded and ninth-ranked Duke beat sixth-seeded Boston College 66-65 in a quarterfinal Friday.
Gerald Henderson (16 points) made a layup to give Duke a 66-65 lead with 34.6 seconds remaining.
BC inbounded the ball with 5.5 seconds left. But BC's Rakim Sanders missed a 3-pointer with one second left.
The Blue Devils eclipsed the NCAA mark for most wins in a decade. They have won 287 games since the start of the 1999-2000 season. They had been tied with Kansas, which won 286 games in the 1990s.
Duke (26-6) will play Maryland in the semifinals at 4 p.m. today.
The Blue Devils swept the regular-season series with the Terrapins, winning 85-44 at home in January and 78-67 in College Park last month.
Duke has not advanced to the ACC final since winning this event in 2006, which was J.J. Redick's senior season.
BC (22-11), which beat Duke at home last month, went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 57-56 with 4:42 to go.
Tyrese Rice (17 points) sank two free throws to cut the lead to 61-60 with 3:05 left, but Duke's Elliot Williams answered with a layup.
BC's Biko Paris drained a 3-pointer to tie the score at 63 with 1:36 to go.
After Duke's Kyle Singler (26 points) sank one of two free throws, Joe Trapani made two free throws to put BC up 65-64 with 52.4 seconds to go.
Blue Devils backup Nolan Smith, who had missed the past three games with a concussion, played Friday.
