Charlotte, N.C. — Technically speaking, Duke lost a basketball game Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Devils fell to Clemson 78-74 in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, marking the second straight year Duke will not play in the championship game after a nine-year run that included seven championships.

Ask any Duke player, though, and they'll tell you this – Duke didn't lose the game; rather, Clemson won it.

The Tigers (24-8) never gave the Devils an opening, making seven of their final eight free throws to advance to take on North Carolina Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRAL.

"I feel like they really won this game," Jon Scheyer said. "They made some big plays down the stretch.

"In a tough game like that, there's such little error that you can make, and a play for us, a play for them – one play goes the other way, the game could be different, but they continued to make the big plays down the stretch."

Center Brian Zoubek succinctly echoed his teammate's words.

"We didn't beat ourselves, Clemson beat us."

The seventh-ranked Blue Devils (27-5) tied the game 56-56 with 7 minutes, 57 seconds remaining, but Tigers senior James Mays converted a three-point play off a pass in transition from fellow senior Cliff Hammonds. Clemson didn't trail again, although Duke made it very interesting.

David McClure, who averages one point a game, pulled the Devils to within 69-66 with 1:29 to play on a put-back layup.

K.C. Rivers responded with a hard drive to the basket and a left-handed floater off the backboard to put the Tigers up five.

Greg Paulus made the score 71-69 with a 3-pointer off a perfectly executed inbounds play, but 43.6 percent free-throw shooter Hammonds knocked down a pair, Duke's Kyle Singler missed a 3, and three free throws by Hammonds and Sam Perry iced the win.

"I thought in a lot of ways it was the best game we played all year," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "They make big play after big play, and we answered that.

"We never lost our poise, so overall I think we are playing as well as we have all year."

While the Devils were disappointed at falling short of their goal to win the tournament, they realized that the guys in purple uniforms earned the victory.

"I have no complaints with my basketball team," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

The Tigers snapped a nine-game losing streak in ACC Tournament semifinal games and will make their first finals appearance since 1962. Clemson has won just one postseason tournament – the 1939 Southern Conference Tournament in Raleigh.

Trevor Booker led the Tigers with 18 points, Hammonds added 17 and Mays chipped in with 16.

Trailing 31-30 at the half, the Tigers came roaring out of the locker room, scoring the second half's first nine points to take a 39-31 lead. Booker fueled the run with an emphatic left-handed dunk, a fade-away jumper and a tough layup.

Throughout the game, the Devils had a tough time handling Booker and Mays down low. When Duke defeated Clemson 93-80 in the teams' lone regular-season meeting almost two months ago, both players struggled passing out of the post, with Duke deflecting their attempts and turning 21 turnovers into 37 points.

Neither player had a problem Saturday. Almost every time the 6-foot-9 Mays was double-teamed, he found Booker or another Tiger for an easy basket or passed the ball back outside. He finished with four of his team's 15 assists.

The Devils said they were a little slow defensively.

"They're a little bit better passers out of the post (than they were in January) and part of it was that," Zoubek said. "Part of it was us not recognizing them and getting in the passing lanes and getting our hands out there to grab passes that had been thrown for easy layups and dunks.

"It was really frustrating."

Trailing 39-31, the Devils fought back thanks to the play of Zoubek, who had one of his best games of the season. The center scored a layup, added a put-back, then made nice passes on consecutive possessions to Nolan Smith for a layup and Singler for a midrange jumper.

Jon Scheyer's three free throws after getting fouled on a 3 tied the game 49-49 with 11:43 to play, and Smith's 3 with 9:45 remaining gave Duke the lead back 52-51.

Duke was led by Paulus' 17 points. DeMarcus Nelson added 14 and Scheyer scored 13.

Zoubek scored eight points and added six rebounds, but for the second straight game, the Devils didn't get much out of Singler. The ACC freshman of the year shot 1-of-9, scoring two points and grabbing four rebounds.

"Kyle looks tired," Krzyzewski said. "You know, he's had a lot of pressure – physical and otherwise – placed on him to play at such a high level, and we need to get him refreshed because his two games here, he (put forth) a gallant effort, but you could tell he just didn't have his legs and wasn't fresh.

"And that's where at the end of the game, a couple of the shot we had, we were short."

Both teams came out sluggishly, with Duke turning the ball over four times in the opening few minutes and players diving all over the court as they tried to chase down loose balls.

Clemson's full-court trapping defense caused some problems for the Devils, although the Tigers were not able to translate many of the Duke miscues into easy baskets. The approach didn't hurt the Tigers, though, because they still got back on defense.

Duke scored just nine fast-break points, as did Clemson. It was a far cry from January's game, when the Devils scored 29 transition points.

"They do a great job of playing the whole court on a press," Krzyzewski said. "Sometimes a team presses and doesn't play the whole court, and you can beat that.

"They really run back and make plays as they are coming back."

Both teams turned the ball over 16 times.

As a result of the game's style, neither team could establish much of an offensive rhythm and build a substantial lead. The advantage changed hands 10 times during the first half and 15 times the entire game.

Duke's one early offensive spark was sixth man Scheyer, who came in with the second unit – the Devils made a 5-for-5 substitution for the second straight day – and created points for himself and his teammates.

Scheyer's 3-pointer followed by a dish to Zoubek for a layup gave Duke an 11-7 lead.

Paulus' 3 in transition and runner in the lane gave the Devils their biggest advantage of the game at 25-19 with 5:30 remaining in the first half, and Paulus scored Duke's final 11 points of the period.

But as was the case the entire game, the Tigers responded. Duke was never able to string together several baskets – a staple of the Devils' attack all season long.

"It was tough, man," Zoubek said. "Every single time we made a push, they came back and quieted it. They just shut it down a little bit.

"We weren't able to get any momentum, couldn't string that many plays together."

In the first half, the Tigers stayed in the game thanks to the 3-point arc. Hammonds made three 3s in the first 14 minutes, forcing Duke to switch ACC defensive player of the year Nelson on him.

Booker's layup off a feed from Mays cut Clemson's deficit to 25-23. And Perry's dunk off another nice pass from Mays gave the Tigers a 28-27 lead with less than 4 minutes left in the half.

When Clemson takes on Carolina Sunday afternoon, the Devils will be back in Durham regrouping. And they feel they have a lot of positives to take from the trip to Charlotte.

Most importantly, they established an 11-man rotation. Despite the competitiveness of Saturday's game, Nelson's 30 minutes were the most of any Duke player. The Devils will be fresh and ready to go when the NCAA Tournament begins next Thursday or Friday for them.

"I just think we're in a better place than when we came in here, and a lot of it has to do with the week of practice that we had," Krzyzewski said.