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GREENSBORO -- And so the last-place team meets the first-place team today in an unlikely ACC tournament semifinal at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Mismatch? Maybe.

Intriguing match? Certainly.

Top-seeded Duke (27-5) got a typical big effort out of its Big Three in the quarterfinal. Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith scored a balanced 48 of the Blue Devils' 57 points in a victory over Virginia.

But it wasn't easy. Scheyer shot just 5-for-17 from the floor, and Duke needed an 11-0 scoring run in the second half to break open a two-point game.

It's not that Duke won. It's the way the Blue Devils won.

The game-changing run came when 6-foot Smith -- the smallest guy on the floor -- scored on a tip-in of Singler's miss. Smith went up among bigger bodies in the paint and scored the key basket.

Also, nothing Duke did on offense compared to the job the Blue Devils did on defense.

Consider this: Virginia point guard Sammy Zeglinski scored 21 points in the first round to lead the Cavs into the game against Duke.

Duke held Zeglinski to no points on 0-for-9 shooting. And the Devils forced him into an uncharacteristic five turnovers.

"I thought our defense was very good throughout," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And in the second half, we had a much better flow offensively."

Which brings us to the intriguing matchup.

It's not an accident that 12th-seeded Miami (20-12) is here. The Hurricanes embarrassed Wake Forest in the first round, and showed remarkable poise Friday in a back-and-forth second half against Virginia Tech.

Duke's strength is on the perimeter. And suddenly, so is Miami's.

Freshman point guard Durand Scott scored 17 points in the win over Virginia Tech, shooting 5-for-5 from the free-throw line down the stretch. Fellow guards James Dews, a senior, and Malcolm Grant combined for 17 points.

The Hurricanes have won both games in the tournament without their best player. Power forward Dwayne Collins is out with a broken foot, but in his place athletic DeQuan Jones and beefy Reggie Johnson -- a redshirt freshman from Winston-Salem -- have picked up the slack. Jones scored 14 points, and Johnson grabbed 12 rebounds against Tech.

Duke has one decided advantage over the Hurricanes. Miami's bread-and-butter defense is an active 2-3 zone. The best way to beat that defense is to shoot over it.

And Scheyer, Smith and Singler are all good 3-point shooters. That makes Duke a prohibitive favorite to play in Sunday's championship game.

Then again, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech were heavy favorites, too.

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