North Carolina faces Virginia in the ACC Tournament Championship for the second time in three years Saturday after beating Duke 74-69.

The Tar Heels doubled down on defense for the win, turning the Blue Devils over 14 times for 21 points off those mistakes and jumping out to a 10-1 lead before allowing Mike Krzyzewski's group to make a field goal.

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    Defensive focus

    That defensive pressure is the product of UNC's emphasis on it needing to eliminate the answer to every bucket of its own to win.

    "Defensively, we really stepped up these last couple games and played better," Luke Maye said, who finished with a doube-double to lead his team.

    There is still room for improvement – and the Blue Devils' 9-0 run midway through the first half proves it – but UNC stole the ball 11 times, aggressively and assertively taking what it wanted to win its third game in three days.

    "We can still get better on the defensive end," said Joel Berry, who scored 13 points and had three steals. "But that's the one thing that's just been killing us.

    "It's just about, 'Can you stop other people from scoring?' When we're out there running around, being active, it's hard to stop us."

    Attacking the zone

    Roy Williams said his team played timid, tight or scared on the last day of the regular season, losing to Duke by 10 points. Friday night, the play was sloppy at its worst times.

    But for the most part, the Tar Heels dove head first into the teeth of the Duke zone, shooting jumpers from near the free throw line with regularity as the team used the open spot freely to its advantage.

    "We remember what happened last time, so we're not going to let that happen again, we want to kep attacking them, attack the zone as much as we could," Berry said.

    "If you get somebody in there to make plays, willing to score, you'll be successful."

    Maye and Theo Pinson agreed that the flaws in the zone were there last time, but the team didn't take advantage of that open shot (and when it did, the shots didn't fall as consistently). But whether the first one fell or not, they understood once in the middle of that defense, the key was to be aggressive with the shot.

    It worked until the end – more than five scoreless minutes to end the game, allowing Duke to pull within three points in the final minute of the game.

    "I have nothing to say about the last five minutes of the game," Roy Williams said.

    "Coach (Steve) Robinson coached that part of the game," he joked.

    Trying not to make mistakes caused North Carolina to make more with a lack of aggression and cautious play, but the team did just enough to hold on and advance.

    Top seed Virginia

    The Cavaliers are just the fourth 30-win team in program history with only two losses. North Carolina is 25-9 and didn't secure a double-bye in Brooklyn.

    "The way it's supposed to be, us versus the number one team in the country," Pinson said, also reminding that UNC was tied for third place in the conference despite landing the six seed.

    Theo Pinson reacts to the mere mention of #UNC being "the number six seed," in the #ACCTourney

    "We were TIED for third.
    I HATE it when they say it."#wralpic.twitter.com/FIh11nFDcQ

    — Marilyn Payne (@marilyn_payne)

    March 10, 2018

    The margin for error is slim against the Cavaliers, who take the most of their 30-second shot clock to select the best shot with consistency.

    "(We have to) make sure we're moving them on the defensive end, make sure that we limit our mistakes," Berry said. "If you make a turnover, you know that you're going down and you're about to play defense for 30 seconds. They keep moving the ball until they get what they want to get."

    Virginia's precision and methodical signature inspired the message on North Carolina's locker room white board: “Bring our brain tomorrow. We didn’t come this far just to come this far.”

    Inside #UNC’s locker room, the message on the white board:
    “Bring our brain tomorrow.
    We didn’t come this far just to come this far.”#ACCTourney#wralpic.twitter.com/fx14FxU2XO

    — Marilyn Payne (@marilyn_payne)

    March 10, 2018

    "The biggest thing is we're moving on to the championship to play Virginia," Maye said. "We got a big win and this is what we wanted."