GREENSBORO - The Duke women's basketball team upset fourth-ranked Rutgers a month into the season, giving first-year coach Joanne P. McCallie a key win that showed her Blue Devils were among the nation's best.

But that victory can't match Saturday's 74-63 upset of No. 5 Maryland in the ACC Tournament semifinals, which puts the No. 12 Blue Devils (23-8) back in the title game -- a position few close ACC observers would have thought possible after the way Duke's regular season ended.

"Our team has been climbing toward this point," said Abby Waner, who had nine points, including a key layup late. "We've regressed a little bit. We were playing really well around the time we were playing Tennessee -- obviously not well enough -- but we've learned from all these losses.

"We lost by 30 a week ago, and we bounced back and played like this today. It shows a lot of growth and maturity on our part."

The Devils' regular season ended with a 82-51 thumping by No. 2 North Carolina -- the team they will face today at 1 p.m. for the championship. The Blue Devils players looked deeply unhappy and disengaged then.

For the first 28 minutes of their ACC Tournament, Duke seemed ready to go back to Durham. But with 12 minutes left, the Blue Devils exploded on Florida State in the quarterfinals and returned to the form the Devils expect of themselves -- tight defense and exciting offense.

From the tip, they had it against Maryland (30-3). Using McCallie's trademark matchup zone, the Blue Devils took away many of the easy inside baskets that Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper are used to. They got physical on Marissa Coleman -- Duke sent Maryland to the free-throw line 16 times in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Duke offense used its talented drivers to penetrate for quick buckets. They went to the hot hands of Wanisha Smith and Joy Cheek and didn't try to force it into the post -- Chante Black finished with a season-low two points.

In other words, the Duke offense looked quite a bit like the one that helped it to a perfect regular season in 2006-07.

And like that regular-season team, Duke looked confident and poised -- much needed to withstand Maryland's runs.

"In the beginning of the game, I was real quiet. I was thinking, 'We're going to beat them,' " said Cheek, who had 16 points -- the first time the forward has been in double figures against a ranked opponent. " 'I don't know by how much, but we're going to beat them.' After one score, you just get hyped and let 'em know you're not playing."

Duke fought its way to a 35-33 halftime lead behind Smith's 13 first-half points. The Blue Devils extended their lead with a 10-2 run and did just enough to stay ahead of the Terrapins down the stretch.

This is McCallie's first win over Maryland with the Blue Devils after dropping both regular-season contests. It was somewhat fitting for the Devils to knock off the Terps in the ACC Tournament. Two years ago, Duke owned Maryland in the regular season before losing in the ACC semifinals and the NCAA title game.

Saturday's win will certainly rejuvenate the Devils going into the NCAA Tournament -- regardless of today's outcome -- and they know that perhaps, they'll see Maryland again.

Wouldn't that be something?