A day after essentially saying "bring it on" to Florida and its vaunted press, Duke paid for its bad judgment with a 87-78 loss in an East Regional semifinal at the Carrier Dome. The No. 1 Blue Devils learned over 40 agonizing minutes Friday that it had neither the strength nor the stamina to hang with the Gators.

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Oh, and add another deficiency. Heart.

Florida (27-7) won perhaps the biggest game in its history with a point guard, Ted Dupay, who was knocked senseless, a leading scorer, Mike Miller, who hardly did and, surprise, defense.

Florida scored the last 13 points of the game after the depleted Blue Devils had taken a 78-74 lead with 4:01 to play. How significant was it? Duke is a virtual lock in regional semifinals. The last time Mike Krzyzewski lost in a regional semifinal was 1987 against Indiana, the eventual national champion.

Right now, no one in Syracuse would doubt that Florida could duplicate the Hoosiers' feat.

The Gators have that destiny look. They survived Butler, they beat up Illinois, then they took on one of the modern legends of college basketball and won its way.

"A lot was being made about our style of play," Florida coach Billy Donovan said, "and us daring Duke to go against our press. There was a lot of talk about fatigue. We just felt like we were going to go out and play our style of play."

Fatigue? How about depth? Miller, who averages 14.5 points, was only 2-of-9 from the field but had 10 points, one of five Gators to score in double figures.

The heroes were freshman guard Brett Nelson, who came off the bench to score a team-leading 15 points and Dupay, who sat out eight minutes after being knocked silly on a layup attempt.

"We are a complete team," Miller said. "Our defense is going to win it for us. In the last four minutes Duke had one field goal. That's great. It's good to have so many offensive weapons, but it's going to be defense that's going to win it for us."

The end didn't come swiftly for Duke, but in degrees. The Blue Devils had 22 turnovers, eight more than their average. Once again, freshman Jason Williams played like one. The point guard had five of the team's turnovers. His 6-of-20 shooting followed a 2-for-15 game against Kansas in a second-round game.

Florida's press forced a 10-second count and a shot-clock violation in the first half. The Gators fell behind by as many as five in the second half. Then with three minutes left and his team trailing by four, Donovan went to a 2-3 zone.

It was half desperation and half brilliant strategy. Duke's Carlos Boozer had just fouled out. Donovan's 6-foot-7 center Udonis Haslem was in foul trouble and had just been victimized by Duke's Shane Battier for an easy basket.

The zone protected Haslem and forced the tiring Blue Devils to use their legs to shoot over it.

"We wanted to play 'man' as long as we could," Donovan said. "We hoped we had fatigued them enough. I wanted to wait as long as I could to switch to zone."

The Blue Devils led 78-74 at that point and never scored again. Donovan made all the right moves. Florida originally extended its lead 6½ minutes into the game when Nelson came off the bench to score eight points in 90 seconds. The Blue Devils (29-5) had no answer for his consecutive 3-pointers and layup sandwiched around Major Parker's three.

The 11-0 run gave the Gators a 20-13 lead. Duke didn't lead again until 12½ minutes remained in the game.

Duke was led by Shane Battier, who had 20 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. His final points came on two foul shots with 4:01 to go. Twenty-eight seconds later he blocked a Haslem shot to preserve the lead.

But it was obvious the Blue Devils were getting tired. Dupay was left wide open for a three that cut the lead to 78-77 with 3:02 left. On the inbounds play, Duke collectively fell asleep. Battier's pass from the end line was ignored and rolled out of bounds.

Florida's Brent Wright gave the Gators the lead for good at 79=78 with 2:09 to go.

The result blasted a giant hole in the Duke myth -- that these Blue Devils were invincible even with the loss of three players to the NBA. Before Friday, the highest ranked team Florida had beaten was No. 3 Vanderbilt in 1967. The program was 0-7 against No. 1s.

Duke had been 22-3 as a No. 1 seed. Friday was the first time in program history that Duke did not get to at least a regional final after being a No. 1 seed. And a wide-open tournament just got more inviting. Michigan State is the only No. 1 seed remaining.

"I think it's bigger news when Duke loses than wins," Donovan said. "You play not to lose sometimes when you play against a team like Duke. I have been preaching in the NCAA Tournament it's OK to be a hero or a goat. Just don't get caught in between. It's OK to try to step up."

Krzyzewski had to go deeper into his bench than he ever wanted to. Boozer and Williams both fouled out in the final minutes.

Duke's bench contributed only six points. Florida got 35 points from five players on its typically deep bench.

Florida's Kenyan Weaks allowed Duke a window of opportunity four minutes into the second half. A held ball turned violent momentarily when Weaks threw a forearm at Williams. The technical turned into a three-point play. Battier made one of two free throws and Carrawell muscled his way inside on the possession. That cut the Florida lead to 48-45.

Dupay was knocked to the floor attempting a layup with 14½ minutes left. After a Duke basket, Florida's woozy starting point guard had to be led to the bench.

Duke senior Chris Carrawell cries after his last college game with coach Mike Krzyzewski.(AP)

"I just had my bell rung a little bit," Dupay said. "I went into the lane and met up with either Battier or Boozer. They're going to win that one."

The last time the teams met, it was a different time, a different world. Florida scored 86 points -- and still lost by 30 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The 116 points by Duke tied for the most ever scored against the Gators. Since then Florida's freshmen are a year older and Duke has retooled from losing three players to the NBA.

"All six (of Duke's top) guys will play in the NBA, four of the six will be lottery picks," Donovan said. "I can't sit here and tell you we've got four lottery picks or six pros on our team."

No, just enough to advance to the regional final.

Notes

• This is the first time since 1996 that a No. 5 seed has reached the regional final.
• Florida is 12-6 in seven appearances overall in the tournament.
• The Gators are 3-0 in the Carrier Dome in the NCAA Tournament.
• The crowd of 30,681 is the largest Florida has ever played in front of. That is also an NCAA regional record for an on-campus site.
• Donovan is 5-1 in the tournament.
• Florida defeated Duke for only the second time in 16 tries.
• Florida was 0-7 against No. 1-ranked teams in its history before Friday.
• Florida has won a school-record five games against ranked opponents.
• Florida set a school record for steals, 343.
• Duke is 46-12 all-time in the East Region.
• It was Duke's earliest departure as a No. 1 seed.
• Duke's 33 points at halftime were the second lowest total of the season.
• This is the first time since 1980 that three No. 1 seeds have lost before the regional final.
• There was a 39-point turnaround from the last time the two teams met. Duke won last season at Cameron Indoor, 116-86.