GREENSBORO -- For the first time since 1963, the ACC Tournament will have an all-Tobacco Road semifinal.
After Wake Forest, N.C. State and North Carolina won earlier in the day, the men's basketball team cruised -- on the helm of Daniel Ewing's 32 points -- past Virginia 83-76 to complete the Carolina quartet Friday night in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Ewing, who started for the Blue Devils for only the second time this season, keyed the offense all night. He added four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals to go with his monster scoring performance, and hit several important shots for Duke including a big three with 6:04 left to give the Blue Devils an eight-point lead.
From there Duke would slip only slightly as Ewing and J.J. Redick, who added 12 points of his own, hit free throws down the stretch to fend off the Wahoos.
"We thought we would try to go faster," Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his decision to start Ewing, who replaced Casey Sanders in the lineup. "We wanted to try to get Daniel in there more.... It's not like we're down on Casey, it's more like we're up on Daniel."
Ewing proved to be a catalyst from the beginning, rallying Duke when it found itself down by as many as six in the early minutes of the first half. The sophomore hit a three-pointer with 9:47 left to cut Virginia's margin to two, 14-12.
Next, following a steal by Shelden Williams, Ewing nailed a jumper to tie the ball game. Duke was then able to hold onto the lead for most of the rest of the half, but a late Cavalier run gave Virginia a 30-29 edge heading into the locker room.
"I just wanted to be a spark plug," Ewing said. "I was trying to do it basically on the defensive end, but it just carried over to offense."
The Blue Devils came out in the second half and used the first five-minute stretch to slowly build a 10-point lead. Pounding inside, Casey Sanders, Nick Horvath and Williams all had big buckets -- thanks in part to Wahoo center Travis Watson's foul trouble -- and the Blue Devils maintained a close-to- or double-digit lead the majority of the half.
Watson would foul out at the 6:55 mark, and although it seemed to give Virginia a bit of a kick, it was too little, too late, as the Cavs could cut it no closer than five in the waning minutes.
The win sets up a semifinal showdown with archrival North Carolina, who beat Duke 82-79 last Sunday in Chapel Hill, today at 4 p.m. In the other semifinal scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m., the Demon Deacons fight the Wolfpack.
"It's obviously going to be another great game," Ewing said. "We'll just have to come out and fight and be sure to put together a good 40 minute game."
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