Duke vs. Notre Dame: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 ACC Tournament

For the second time this year, the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish upset the second-ranked Duke Blue Devils, winning 74-64 in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz didn't undersell the victory, arguing that it could be proof of the Fighting Irish's Final Four credentials:

ESPN Stats & Info talked more about what Notre Dame's win means:

Fighting back from a 15-point halftime deficit, Duke slowly chipped away at Notre Dame's lead in the second half.

A three-pointer from Duke guard Tyus Jones made it a four-point game, 68-64, in favor of the Fighting Irish with three minutes and 13 seconds left in the game.

Duke center Jahlil Okafor had a chance to get the Blue Devils to within two points at the free-throw line with 1:48 remaining. A 52.4 percent foul shooter on the season, he missed both, and Notre Dame grabbed the rebound.

Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis wasn't complimentary of Okafor's work at the charity stripe:

Davis added that Okafor's struggles in that regard could wind up costing Duke big down the line:

With a little over a minute left, Fighting Irish guard Pat Connaughton, who had made one basket for the entire game to that point, buried a jumper as the shot clock was about to expire.

It gave Notre Dame some much-needed breathing room, and from there, the Fighting Irish iced the game away at the free-throw line.

Okafor led all scorers with 28 points, but those two missed free throws will be what most remember from his performance.

On the other side, Notre Dame got contributions from a lot of players. Guards Demetrius Jackson and Jerian Grant went for 15 and 13 points, respectively, while forward Bonzie Colson came off the bench to drop 17.

Before the game, Connaughton spoke about how revenge was weighing squarely on Notre Dame's mind after a 90-60 defeat to the Blue Devils on Feb. 7, per Steve Wiseman of The Herald-Sun in Durham, North Carolina:

"

To be honest that’s something that's going to help motivate us. Obviously we had a great game against them at our home but when we went down there, they killed us. They really made a statement where most people may think that the win we had was more of a fluke thing. We are going to use that as motivation. We couldn't be happier to get a rematch versus them. We're going to have to come out and play our best.

"

Connaughton and his teammates couldn't have envisaged a better start to the game.

Duke's offense was woeful to begin the game, with the Blue Devils putting a mere five points on the board through the first 8:50.

And things didn't get much better for the rest of the first half. Duke had 26 points going into the locker room—this coming from a team averaging a tad over 80 points a game and ranking third in the country in scoring.

Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde summed up the general reaction of college basketball followers everywhere:

It's hard to imagine where the Blue Devils would've been without Okafor, too. The freshman big man accounted for over half of his team's offensive output, leading all scorers with 15 points.

However, many looked at Okafor as one of the biggest reasons why Duke couldn't stop the Notre Dame offense. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Fighting Irish scored 30 of their 41 first-half points in the paint:

CBS Sports Network's Wally Szczerbiak felt Duke's style was playing right into the hands of Notre Dame:

Chris Bunn of Blue Devil Lair highlighted the conundrum Coach K faced at halftime regarding Okafor:

CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie countered that Duke's defensive struggles were down to a number of factors beyond just Okafor:

"

I’m excited for people to point to “Points in the Paint” as a reason Okafor’s defense sucks when it’s just as much a function of perimeter D

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 14, 2015"

As bad as things were for Duke, it scored 26 points in the first half against Virginia before picking up a 69-63 victory. Granted, the Blue Devils had a one-point lead going into the half then.

Early on into the second half, the pace of the game picked up a little bit. The two teams were exchanging buckets, which one might figure would've eventually favored Duke. On paper, the Blue Devils have the better offense, and the more possessions they had, the more opportunity they had to eat into the deficit.

Instead, Notre Dame kept Duke at bay. The story of the half was the Blue Devils getting a couple of buckets and building some momentum. Then, the Fighting Irish would answer back, and everything went back to square one:

ESPN Insider John Gasaway drew the parallel between Notre Dame's defensive style to what Duke used against Indiana in a 75-67 win on Nov. 30, 2005:

It looked like Mike Brey's game plan might unravel late, but he was validated in the end as Duke's reliance on Okafor was its ultimate undoing. There's no question that the freshman is one of the most talented players in the country, but the Fighting Irish showed that he alone can't win a game for the Blue Devils.

Notre Dame advances to the ACC tournament final, where it will meet North Carolina. The Tar Heels upended the third-ranked Virginia Cavaliers earlier in the day.

The Fighting Irish won their only meeting against UNC, going on the road and earning a 71-70 victory.

From a Duke perspective, the biggest question is whether the Blue Devils can still hold onto a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. As Katz noted, they failed to win either the regular-season conference title or ACC tournament:

Should Arizona win the Pac-12 tournament, the Wildcats might climb into one of the four top seeds, but for now, Duke is probably still in pole position.