CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Teams with three-guard lineups aren't supposed to rebound the way Duke did Wednesday night.

Blame it on fatigue or blame it on negligence, but Virginia's inability to control the defensive boards proved to be its undoing in an 86-70 loss at John Paul Jones Arena.

Sixth-ranked Duke (26-3, 13-2 ACC) defeated UVa for the 24th time in the teams' past 27 meetings, setting up a showdown with No. 1 North Carolina (28-2, 13-2) for the ACC regular-season championship Saturday at Duke.

Virginia (14-14, 4-11) will entertain Maryland at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the final home game for two-time All-ACC selection Sean Singletary and two other UVa seniors.

Singletary scored nine points in the first five minutes Wednesday but subsequently went to the bench for a breather and never seemed to regain his rhythm in the Cavaliers' third game in five days.

He finished with a team-high 18 points, however, and moved past Junior Burrough into fifth place on UVa's all-time scoring list with 1,975 points.

The Cavaliers led at several stages of the first half, the final time on a Mamadi Diane 3-pointer that made it 29-28 with 6:45 left, but that was UVa's last field goal before intermission.

Before Diane hit a pair of free throws with 37.8 seconds remaining in the half, Virginia had gone 11 straight possessions without scoring and fallen victim to a 15-0 Duke run.

Both coaches attributed the turnaround to the Blue Devils' switch to a zone defense, which coach Mike Krzyzewski has used sparingly in his 28 seasons at the Duke helm.

Singletary did not score in the final 14:17 before halftime.

"I think they made a conscious decision," UVa coach Dave Leitao said. "He was taking guys off the dribble. He was exploiting pick-and-rolls. He was getting to the foul line, doing a little bit of everything. They made a concerted effort to keep him at 25 [or] 28 feet with two guys guarding him."

It didn't help that Virginia had more turnovers in the first half (11) than it had in three of its previous five games.

The Cavaliers shored up their ball-handling in the second half, but Duke couldn't miss and extended its lead to 66-47 before Virginia went on a 10-0 run that cut the margin to single digits.

Krzyzewski responded by calling a timeout with 10:34 left and the Cavaliers' momentum was halted. It wasn't that Virginia let down on defense, but when the Blue Devils missed seven shots over the next 6:43, they were able to grab six offensive rebounds.

"You have to be darned near perfect," Leitao said. "Against another team in another instance, you might be able to get through a stretch when you don't rebound, but not against this team. They're too good."

Stickbacks resulted in 11 points, as Duke extended its lead to 86-64 with 3:11 remaining.

"When you get offensive-rebound baskets, it gives you energy and knocks some energy out of the other team," Krzyzewski said. "You feel like you've played good defense -- and they had -- and, all of a sudden, we get it and we score."

A failure to control the defensive boards also had hurt Virginia when it was on the verge of beating North Carolina before losing to the Tar Heels 75-74 in Charlottesville.

"We knew they had been playing their best basketball of the year," Krzyzewski said. "They could have been undefeated the last two weeks."

Duke went into the game as the ACC leader in 3-point field goals and went 12-for-27 (44.4 percent) on a night when it shot 50.8 percent overall. Virginia was only 6-of-18 on 3-pointers and shot 46.6 percent from the field.

When asked if the Cavaliers were feeling the strain of three games in five days, junior post man Lauris Mikalauskas said, "Absolutely not."

Singletary led four Virginia scorers in double figures, but for the second game in a row, three of them were non-starters -- Calvin Baker (15), Diane (12) and Mikalauskas (10).

Sophomore wing Gerald Henderson, one of five Blue Devils in double figures, led all scorers with 19 points.

"What they've decided to do this year is try to be the best offensive team in the country," Leitao said, "and their mind-set never changes."

Duke MP FG FT R A F PT

Singler 32 8-21 0-0 8 0 3 18

Thomas 16 0-1 1-2 2 1 1 1

Paulus 33 5-10 0-0 2 3 3 14

Henderson 28 8-13 2-2 7 4 1 19

Nelson 29 6-10 2-5 4 4 2 16

Smith 11 2-2 0-0 1 0 1 6

McClure 5 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

King 4 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Scheyer 29 3-6 3-3 2 4 0 10

Zoubek 13 1-1 0-2 4 1 3 2

Totals 200 33-65 8-14 35 17 15 86

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Joseph 14 1-4 0-0 2 0 2 3

Scott 22 1-3 0-0 3 1 1 2

Pettinella 12 0-0 0-0 3 1 1 0

Jones 17 1-5 1-2 4 0 0 3

Singletary 35 6-16 5-6 1 7 3 18

Baker 31 7-15 0-0 1 4 2 15

Mikalauskas 19 4-7 2-3 4 0 3 10

Tucker 21 2-2 0-0 8 0 1 5

Diane 23 4-5 2-2 2 0 0 12

Tat 6 1-1 0-0 2 0 0 2

Totals 200 27-58 10-13 32 13 13 70

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Duke 43 43 -- 86

Virginia 31 39 -- 70

3-point goals: Duke 12-27 (Paulus 4-7, Smith 2-2, Nelson 2-3, Singler 2-9, Henderson 1-2, Scheyer 1-3, King 0-1), Virginia 6-18 (Diane 2-3, Tucker 1-1, Baker 1-3, Joseph 1-3, Singletary 1-7, Jones 0-1).

Turnovers: Duke 11 (Singler 2, Henderson 2, Nelson 2, Zoubek), Virginia 14 (Singletary 5, Baker 5).

Blocked shots: Duke 1 (Zoubek), Virginia 4 (Scott 3).

Steals: Duke 4 (Paulus, Henderson, Nelson, Scheyer), Virginia 3 (Scott, Tucker, Diane).

Officials: Luckie, Hull, Burr.

Attendance: 14,273.