No. 5 seed Georgia Tech (17-11) completed a three-game sweep of the fourth-seeded Cavaliers (20-8) with its first ACC Tournament victory in five years.

Virginia simply didn't have anyone who could handle the 6-foot-11 Jones, an All-ACC selection who lived up to the pregame assessment of Cavs coach Pete Gillen.

"He's a monster," Gillen had said.

Georgia Tech, one of the country's most surprising teams under first-year coach Paul Hewitt, earned its seventh victory over a ranked team. This one might have been enough to get the Yellow Jackets off the bubble.

Hewitt was confident the Yellow Jackets would be part of the 65-team field if they could win at least one game in the ACC Tournament.

They did, playing just a mile from campus before a tournament record crowd of 40,083 at the Georgia Dome. Tech advanced to a semifinal meeting with No. 6 North Carolina on Saturday.

After a sloppy first half, the final 20 minutes were thrilling with 16 lead changes and four ties. Darryl LaBarrie hit a 3-pointer with 1:31 remaining to put the Jackets ahead for good at 69-67, but it was left to Jones to finish off the Cavaliers.

First, he blocked an attempt at the tying basket by Donald Hand. Then, Jones fought off a triple team to hit a basket with 49.8 seconds remaining that pushed the margin to four points.

Roger Mason, who led Virginia with 20 points, hit a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left, making it 71-69. But Jon Babul countered with two free throws for Georgia Tech.

Jones swatted away the Cavs' last gasp, a drive by Chris Williams, who fouled out going for the loose ball. More...

Duke 76, N.C. State 61

Duke forgot its home uniforms, but the third-ranked Blue Devils didn't miss a beat in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

Jason Williams scored 10 of his 19 points during a 15-0 first-half run as Duke (27-4) began defense of its ACC title with a 76-61 victory over North Carolina State.

The win was Duke's 10th in a row over the Wolfpack (13-16), seventh consecutive in the ACC postseason and moved Mike Krzyzewski within two of No. 600 for his career.

Chris Duhon made his second start with center Carlos Boozer out with a broken bone in his right foot and was impressive again, scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds. Shane Battier added 16 points.

Anthony Grundy scored 10 of N.C. State's first 14 points, but finished with just 11 as the Wolfpack fell to 1-11 this season against ranked teams.

Duke is trying to become just the third time in the 48-year history of the ACC to win three championships in a row. N.C. State did it in 1954-56 and North Carolina in 1967-69.

Maryland 71, Wake Forest 53

No. 11 Maryland was rolling at the end of the regular season, and nothing changed in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

The Terrapins won their sixth game in a row with another dominating performance, routing No. 22 Wake Forest 71-53 in the quarterfinals.

Maryland (21-9) has defeated five ranked teams on its current streak, including Wake Forest (19-10) twice. The average margin in those victories: a scary 19.5 points.

Not bad for a team that seemed in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament after an embarrassing 74-71 loss at home to Florida State on Feb. 17. The Terrapins haven't been beaten since.

Juan Dixon scored 15 points and Lonny Baxter added 14 to lead Maryland, but it was the dirty work that powered this victory.

The Terps dominated the boards most of the night and limited Wake Forest to 32 percent (19-of-60) shooting in its lowest scoring game of the season.

The offensive futility was epitomized by a measly five assists for the Demon Deacons.

North Carolina 99, Clemson 81

North Carolina advanced to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals by beating the team that knocked it out of the top spot in the rankings last month.

Jason Capel made all six of his 3-pointers and scored 23 points as the sixth-ranked Tar Heels beat Clemson 99-81.

Ronald Curry added a career-high 10 assists for North Carolina (24-5), the top seed in the conference tournament. The Tar Heels, who had lost three of five coming in, are 12-1 in the ACC postseason against the Tigers, the ninth seed.

On Feb. 18, Clemson beat North Carolina 75-65 to stop the Tar Heels' 18-game winning streak.

Joseph Forte, the ACC scoring leader, had another off game against Clemson, shooting 6-for-17 and scoring 15 points. He scored 14 and 16 against Clemson earlier this season, and his three-lowest conference point totals this season came against the Tigers.

Capel took over, going 8-for-9 from the field while adding nine rebounds and four assists.