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ATLANTA — In the end, Duke’s stars did what stars do.

At the finish of a long day of ACC tournament games in the cavernous echo chamber known as the Georgia Dome, the Blue Devils’ big three made sure two of the Big Four made it to the semifinals.

Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer combined for 56 points, and third-seeded Duke held off sixth-seeded Boston College 66-65 in a quarterfinal matchup late Friday night.

Duke (26-6) takes on seventh-seeded Maryland (20-12) at 4 p.m. today in the second game of a semifinal doubleheader following the game between top-seeded North Carolina (28-3) and fourth seed Florida State (24-8).

It almost didn’t happen for the Blue Devils.

Trailing by one, Boston College (22-11) had the ball with 10.6 seconds left. The Eagles brought the ball to midcourt, called timeout with 5 seconds left and drew up an inbounds play that appeared to use star point guard Tyrese Rice as a decoy. The play blew up, though. BC's Rakim Sanders, who inbounded the ball, got it back and missed a 35-footer at the buzzer.

“We actually had a couple of options in that situation,” Boston College coach Al Skinner said. “(Sanders) was one of the options, but we had a couple of options. It ended up with him, and he did what he did.”

“I don’t know what they were trying to run there, but we took them out of whatever it was,” Singler said. “You see those shots go in all the time, so we were fortunate. We’re moving on. When it counted, we made the plays we needed to make.”

The stars made most of the plays.

Henderson shrugged off early foul trouble and scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, including a driving shot with 34.6 seconds left that turned out to be the last two points of the game as the lead changed hands for the 14th and final time.

Singler worked two jobs all night, shooting from the perimeter and defending big men inside. He scored 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

And Scheyer, the shooting guard forced to move to the point, played through foul trouble, scored 14 points and ran the show against Rice, one of the nation’s elite point guards. Scheyer picked up his fourth foul with 4:02 left and stayed in the game, playing to the finish.

Henderson, who had foul trouble of his own, was the defender on Sanders on the final play.

“I just tried to play the best defense I could,” Henderson said, “and when I looked, the shot was a little to the left.”

Freshman guard Elliot Williams drew the defensive assignment on Rice on the final play.

“I tried to deny him,” Williams said. “He was coming up, and I played in front. I guess (BC’s Tyler) Roche came out and got it, and he gave it to Sanders for a 35-footer. So that’s good.”

Rice finished with 17 points to lead Boston College. Biko Paris shot 3-for-3 from 3-point range and had 15 points, and Joe Trapani scored 12.

So how did Sanders, who scored seven points, end up taking the last shot?

“First of all, we just wanted to get the stop,” Singler said. “We wanted to push them out as far as possible and not let Rice get the ball. Sanders took a tough shot, and G (Henderson) played good defense on him.”

Henderson’s defense ended a back-and-forth game that included one successful long shot that beat the buzzer.

Rice hit a step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Boston College a 29-22 halftime lead. With Singler guarding him closely, Rice made a head-and-shoulder fake, then stepped backward and shot from the “A” in the ACC logo on the floor, burying the 26-footer.

Henderson got off to a rough start. The Duke star missed his first shot — a 3-point attempt — and was whistled for two fouls in the first 34 seconds. He was called for a charge on offense and an immediate hold when the Blue Devils set up a full-court press. He went to the bench and stayed there for more than 10 minutes.

It wasn’t easy early for the Eagles, either.

Sanders scored a bucket inside, and Boston College stayed stuck on two points for nearly 10 minutes, falling behind 11-2.

But the Eagles rallied, despite losing key reserve Reggie Jackson with a right elbow injury, and took the halftime lead.

NOTES: Bob Harris, the radio voice of Duke athletics since 1975, was picked to receive the ACC’s 2009 Skeeter Francis Award, honoring contributions to ACC sports media coverage. Harris has broadcast 370 consecutive Duke football games and is calling play-by-play at his 34^th straight ACC tournament. ... Duke came in having lost two of its last three ACC tournament games. That’s after a string where the Blue Devils had won 23 of their previous 24, including a 17-game winning streak. ... Duke is 3-0 in its new home white jerseys. Designed by a corporate sponsor, the back of the jerseys features a subtle design in light gray that’s barely noticeable from a distance. Up close the jerseys look like the circuit-board inspired costumes from the 1982 sci-fi movie “Tron," which starred Jeff Bridges.