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ATLANTA - This ACC tournament championship game matches Duke against Florida State, a team the Blue Devils have already beaten twice this season.

You'd think the Blue Devils would be thrilled.

And you'd be wrong.

Third-seeded Duke (27-6) takes on fourth-seeded Florida State (25-8) in the tournament final at 1 p.m. today at the Georgia Dome.

It's a game both teams are looking forward to -- and dreading.

"We could have easily lost either (regular-season) game against them," Duke forward Kyle Singler said. "They are a good team. Both games went down to the wire."

Duke won 66-58 in Tallahassee back in January, then held on for an 84-81 victory 12 days ago at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Florida State point guard Toney Douglas -- the ACC's defensive player of the year and the runner-up for ACC player of the year -- scored 18 points in the first game and 23 in the second.

"Keys to the game?" Singler said. "They are big inside, and we are going to have to stop Toney Douglas. He's a very good guard. We are going to have to play 40 minutes. That is a big thing with this team. Sometimes we don't play well in the first half and then play better in the second. We can't do that against them and expect to win. We have to put together two halves of good basketball."

Singler should know. He played all 40 minutes in the Blue Devils' semifinal victory over Maryland.

Singler provides a matchup problem for the Seminoles. The 6-foot-8 sophomore is Duke's leading rebounder and most reliable interior defender. But he's also the Blue Devils' leading scorer, and he gets many of his points from the perimeter. He's hit 59 3-pointers in 33 games, and he's a 38 percent shooter from beyond the arc.

Along with Douglas (21 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game), the Seminoles feature one of the ACC's tallest front lines. Solomon Alabi, a 7-foot freshman, leads the ACC in blocks (2.2 per game), and he plays alongside 6-9 senior Uche Echefu and 6-9 freshman Chris Singleton. All three FSU big men can score.

"We're not going to grow overnight," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We played them twice, and it's a matter of knowing you're not going to get many layups against them.

"You have to have an A-plus game to beat them, and we've played two A-plus games."

Duke has been a different team since shuffling its lineup eight games ago against St. John's, inserting athletic freshman Elliot Williams as a wing player and moving shooting guard Jon Scheyer to the point. The Blue Devils are 7-1 since then.

Scheyer is a methodical ballhandler, and at 6-5 he is taller than most point guards. He has a quick release on his jump shot, and he is Duke's best 3-point shooter.

"Coach has put me in a good position to score the ball," Scheyer said. "For me, when the (opposing) point guard is picking me up at the top of the key it's a strength for me to take him off the ball. They're not used to it, so I just try and use it to my advantage. It's a matter of being confident and taking the right shots."

Singler (16.8 ppg), Scheyer (14.5 ppg) and Gerald Henderson (16.3 ppg) give Duke three legitimate scoring threats against any team.

Henderson might be the most difficult to defend because of the athletic, NBA-caliber moves he makes to get to the basket.

But with Douglas, Florida State has a defender to put on the hottest of the three Duke scorers.

And if the game is on the line, look for Douglas to take the last shot.

"I think Toney is the poster child for hard work and dedication," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said.

"He proves the old adage that basketball players are made in the summer. When you take as many shots as he did during the summer in the gym all by yourself, you have a certain level of confidence that when you get an open look you feel like it's going in. &ellipses; He has supreme confidence, and we have supreme confidence in him that if we get him into position, then something good is going to happen."

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com