GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- What NCAA tournament bubble pressure?

Josh Powell had 18 points, and Scooter Sherrill and Marcus Melvin added 15 each as North Carolina State helped its postseason hopes by beating Georgia Tech 71-65 in the ACC tournament Friday.

"We were able to maintain a poise even though we all probably had some butterflies in our stomachs," Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said. "This was really important to us, yet we were able to temper that with a peace that allowed us to maintain composure."

Sendek improved to 6-1 in opening tourney games as the fourth-seeded Wolfpack (17-11) advanced to the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

"Many teams get knocked out in the first round in tournaments, you've seen it across the nation. But our guys really focus on these first games," said senior point guard Clifford Crawford. "You can't play in the championship game if you don't win the first game of the tournament."

N.C. State will play No. 1 seed Wake Forest (24-4) Saturday. The ninth-ranked Demon Deacons beat Florida State 69-61 in the opening quarterfinal game and swept the Wolfpack twice during the regular season.

Many NCAA tournament bracket experts believed N.C. State needed to at least beat the Yellow Jackets to be invited as an at-large team to the field of 65.

"Every game we've had for the last two weeks has been like a must-win game," Julius Hodge said. "We knew if we wanted to have any kind of great postseason chances we would have to win -- and we got it done. We really played with urgency."

Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets (14-14) dropped six of eight since a 90-84 upset of Maryland on Feb. 9. Chris Bosh led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

"I haven't found what button I have to push to get us over the hump," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said.

The Wolfpack, in a month-long shooting slump beyond the arc, was money from there Friday, making 11-of-21 while shooting 50 percent from the field.

"You've got to get our on their shooters and we didn't do that," Georgia Tech's Jarrett Jack said. "Those 3s they hit were backbreakers."

Powell added eight rebounds and a career-high six blocked shots for the Wolfpack.

"Josh has been a growing man, but he grew up a little bit extra today," Sherrill said. "I could see before the game he was so focused, that he wanted to take on this challenge against Chris Bosh."

Sherrill scored a combined 14 points in two meetings with Georgia Tech this season, but he was on his outside game this time, making five of his first seven shots from 3-point range.

Still, N.C. State trailed 56-51 with 8:35 left and was getting beat up on the inside before taking the lead with a 9-0 run as Melvin sank a 3-pointer and a 12-footer, while Powell added a layup.

The Yellow Jackets closed to 62-60 with 3:49 left, but Melvin sank a 3-pointer and added two key free throws with 36.7 seconds left that put the Wolfpack up 67-60.

"This game was like the story of our season," Georgia Tech's B.J. Elder said. "It was a missed opportunity. We were up by five and we were in a position to put them away and for whatever reason we didn't do it.

"They didn't do anything we couldn't handle," Elder added. "This was all on us."

Georgia Tech didn't help its cause by missing 12 of its first 14 shots to fall into an early hole.

The Yellow Jackets stayed within a basket or two before the Wolfpack closed the half on an 11-4 run as Sherrill and Crawford sank 3-pointers. Crawford's came at the halftime buzzer for a 34-25 N.C. State lead.

Powell, who has played well over the last month of the season, had his best half of the year, scoring 11 points, grabbing five rebounds and blocking four shots. The 6-foot-9 center set the tone early with two rejections in the opening 4:47.

N.C. State could have led by more at halftime, but wasb just 2-for-7 from the foul line. That's uncharacteristic of the Wolfpack, who came in having made 90 of its last 102 and whose 77.4 percent mark is the best from the line in the ACC since North Carolina shot 78.3 percent in 1984.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Daniel Ewing scored a career-high 32 points as No. 12 Duke extended its record ACC tournament winning streak to 13 straight with an 83-76 win over Virginia on Friday night.

The victory by third-seeded Duke (22-6) produced the first all-North Carolina semifinals since 1963 and only the fourth in the 50-year history of the Atlantic Coast Conference postseason.

The Blue Devils will play North Carolina in the semifinals Saturday in a rematch of the Tar Heels' 82-79 win five days ago in Chapel Hill. North Carolina advanced by upsetting No. 14 Maryland 84-72 earlier Friday night, while top-seeded Wake Forest will take on No. 4 seed N.C. State.

Ewing was 11-for-16 from the field, including five 3-pointers, and five-of-five from the foul line to best the 19 points he scored against Georgetown on Jan. 8.

Dahntay Jones hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers in a span of 47 seconds down the stretch to seal it for the Blue Devils, who last lost in the ACC tourney to North Carolina in the 1998 title game.

Meanwhile, Virginia (15-15) lost its 13th straight postseason game, including an 0-8 record under head coach Pete Gillen.

Devin Smith led the Cavaliers with 19 points, but Virginia wasted a 57 percent shooting game by turning it over 19 times.

Virginia lost all hope of a comeback when senior Travis Watson, with 53 career double-doubles, fouled out with 6:55 left and his team down 61-56.

Mike Krzyzewski benched captain Chris Duhon to start the second half in an attempt to jump-start his team's sluggish offense. The junior point guard had six of Duke's 11 first-half turnovers and was held scoreless.

The move worked as Duke started with an 18-7 run to take a 47-37 lead with 14:09 left. Ewing hit a 3-pointer, a driving layup and an alley-oop shot from Duhon, who re-entered the game at the tail end of the Duke spurt.

The Blue Devils increased the lead to as many as 13 before Virginia pulled within five. However, less than two minutes later, Ewing scored on a scoop shot and a 3-pointer and Duke's lead was back to 11 with 9:20 remaining.

Duke's offense started in disarray. The Blue Devils missed 10 of their first 14 shots and managed just nine points in the opening 10 minutes, not getting a 3-pointer until Ewing sank one 9:46 before the half.

Meanwhile, Virginia shot 52.4 percent in the opening period but couldn't pull away after turning it over 12 times.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Josh Howard struggled but still scored 17 points Friday to lead No. 9 Wake Forest to a 69-61 victory over Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

Wake Forest, the No. 1 seed in the tournament after winning its first outright ACC title in 41 years, couldn't shake the ninth-seeded Seminoles for almost 30 minutes.

But Howard, the ACC Player of the Year, scored on consecutive baskets in a stretch of five straight by Wake Forest to give the Demon Deacons (24-4) control of the game.

He scored on an off-balance pump-fake in double coverage, then nailed a 12-foot jumper to give Wake Forest a 58-52 lead with 5:51 to play -- the Deacons first comfortable margin of the game.

Howard finished 7-of-15 from the floor -- 0-for-3 from 3-point range -- and went 3-for-6 at the line.

Freshman Justin Gray had 15 points for Wake Forest, Vytas Danelius added 14 and sophomore Jamaal Levy had 12 rebounds.

Tim Pickett scored 17 points for Florida State (14-15). Trevor Harvey added 15, Anthony Richardson had 14 and Michael Joiner scored 10, but none in the second half.

Wake Forest didn't take its first lead of the game until Howard's free throw made it 40-39 with 13:35 to play.

But the Demon Deacons couldn't shake Florida State. Richardson scored on a layup and Pickett hit a 3-pointer -- and then celebrated the shot by jawing at television analyst Dick Vitale as he passed him on the baseline -- to put the Seminoles back up 44-42.

Florida State's energy soon ran out.

Coming off a 72-61 victory over Clemson in Thursday night's first-round game, the Seminoles began to tire just as Wake Forest warmed up. The frantic back-and-forth pace had Florida State's players looking haggard by the time Danelius hit a 3-pointer that tied the game at 50 with 9:16 to play.

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton called a timeout to give the Seminoles a breather, but there was little stopping Wake Forest out of the break.

The Demon Deacons scored five-straight baskets, beginning with a Danelius dunk, Howard's back-to-back baskets and 3-pointer from Taron Downey that gave Wake Forest a 63-56 lead with 4:24 to play.

Pickett wouldn't go away quietly, though, hitting a 3-pointer that cut it to 63-59 with 3:47 left.

After Levy scored on a bank shot for Wake, Pickett got the ball inside to Richardson, who drew a foul and hit both free throws. The Seminoles then got a steal, but Pickett couldn't convert -- he thought he was fouled as he went in for the layup -- and Florida State had to foul on every Wake Forest possession from there.

Gray and Howard then made four consecutive free throws to seal Wake Forest's seventh consecutive victory.