CHARLOTTE -- Even when the men's basketball team had trouble shooting the ball this season, it could always count on two things: pressure defense and senior Grant Hill.
On Saturday against Virginia Duke's defense wasn't enough, and the burden was too great for Hill.
The Cavaliers bounced the top-seeded Blue Devils from the second round of the 41st annual Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, 66-61, before 23,532 at the Charlotte Coliseum. It was a day of upsets across the nation as fifth-ranked Duke (23-5) joined many other top-10 teams which lost on Saturday.
The Blue Devils kept that dubious company as a result of their 36.2 field goal percentage against UVa. It was Duke's worst shooting performance of the season.
Second-seeded North Carolina won the tournament championship with a 73-66 victory over the Cavaliers in Sunday's final.
"We didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but Virginia plays good defense -- they force you into that type of situation," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We couldn't put the ball in the basket, and our defense couldn't save us this time."
Neither could Hill, Duke's player of the year candidate who was 6-of-20 from the floor with seven turnovers on this day. He missed two layups in the game's waning minutes, including a wide-open baseline drive which led to a Virginia fast break with 3:42 remaining. UVa freshman point guard Harold Deane pulled up in transition to nail a 23-foot trey, giving the Cavs a lead they would not relinquish.
"Grant's done it all year long -- I felt bad that he missed a couple of easy ones," Krzyzewski said. "There's no question that he was exhausted at the end. But we're totally responsible as a team for the loss."
The defeat was unexpected considering the way Duke handled UVa during the regular season, typified by a 30-point Blue Devil win Jan. 16 in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Saturday, though, was quite a different story. If the Cavaliers hadn't been impressive enough in their opening-round win over Maryland, beating Duke assured them of a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
"This was a heck of a victory -- that's an understatement," Virginia head coach Jeff Jones said. "We hung in there."
The Blue Devils had a couple of chances to bury the Cavs, but UVa, led by freshman Jamal Robinson, refused to fold. A Cherokee Parks dunk with 5:14 left in the first half put Duke up by seven, 24-17. But Robinson answered with a three-pointer, a steal and a layup to bring his team within two. The Cavaliers went to the locker room with a 30-28 halftime lead.
Then with 6:04 left in the game and Duke up by six, Robinson hit a 15-foot jumper, stole the ball and scored on another layup to bring Virginia within two, 57-55.
Robinson's heroics were typical of the offensive and defensive efforts Duke expected and could not counter.
"They entice you with that sagging defense to take questionable shots," senior Marty Clark said. "Offensively, they try to run and take advantage of it at the other end."
Robinson and Deane led Virginia with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
Parks was the high man for Duke with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"We're going to have to play a lot harder," Hill said. "We have to attack out there instead of always being attacked. It's got to be everybody out there -- it can't just be a couple of guys. We've got to play like we did during the regular season. We can't expect to win just because we're ACC [regular-season] champs."
GAME 1: The Blue Devils opened tournament play with a 77-64 win over eighth-seeded Clemson. Parks struggled offensively, scoring just eight points, but dominated on defense with 10 rebounds and a school-record 10 blocks.
"We were very pleased with our defensive effort this afternoon," Krzyzewski said. "If we didn't play good defense today, we wouldn't have won. Clemson is so difficult for us to play -- they're physical -- they're good. They're very good."
Most of those shots came from the foul line in the last two minutes, where Duke canned 8-of-13 free throws to seal the win. Hill paced Duke with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He struggled with his defensive assignment, Tiger forward Devin Gray, who burned Duke with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"I thought we actually defended Gray better than we have," Krzyzewski said. "He usually has 25 [points] and 12 [rebounds] against us. I don't think he had that today."
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