Duke University sophomore Josh Dionne scored three goals and junior goaltender Dan Wigrizer made two saves in the final seconds to push top-seeded Duke into the men’s lacrosse ACC Championship game with a 6-5 win over No. 4 seed Maryland at Klöckner Stadium. Duke advances to the title game for the 13th time in program history.

The seventh-ranked Blue Devils push their win streak to nine games and improved to 12-3 overall for the year. Duke is now 19-16 all-time in the ACC Tournament and 8-3 as the No. 1 seed. The 11 combined goals in the game were the fewest in a Duke-Maryland game since a 5-4 Terrapin victory in 1948 and the lowest combined score in ACC Tournament history.

“First of all I want to say that I’m extremely proud of our team,” head coach John Danowski said. “I’m very proud of how the team has evolved over the past seven weeks. With that being said it was for me a typical ACC street fight. Physical, tough, but clean and fair. And while I know not a lot of goals were scored it was a great college lacrosse game.”

The hat trick by Dionne was his seventh of the year and gives him 31 goals for the year. Justin Turri, Christian Walsh and CJ Costabile also added goals for the Blue Devils. Wigrizer finished with 10 saves for Duke, including three in the fourth quarter.

The first half featured three ties and one lead change as neither squad managed to get more than a two-goal lead. Costabile wasted no time giving the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead as he took the opening faceoff right down the field and netted his fifth goal of the season just six seconds into the game.

Maryland (7-4) and Duke proceeded to trade two-goal runs, leaving the Blue Devils with a 3-2 lead at the 8:54 mark of the second quarter. The Terrapins picked up an extra-man goal 40 seconds later to tie the game for the second time of the evening.

All square at three apiece and Duke holding the final possession of the first half, Dionne had perhaps the most exciting play of the game. After the ball was knocked loose to the ground, Dionne managed to pick it up in a swarm of defensemen with his back to the goal and throw it past Maryland goalie Niko Amato for a 4-3 Duke lead at the break. Amato finished with seven saves.

“It was a scrap there in the middle,” Dionne said. “And all week we’ve been working on scrapping and we focus on that every day. So when the ball is on the ground I’m going to be fighting for it. I was just fortunate to come up with the ball and another thing we do in practice is knowing where the net is so I had full confidence and it just so happened to go in this time.”

The defensive battle continued in the second half with the squads combining for four goals and 31 shots overall, 10 of which were on goal.

Turri gave Duke its largest lead of the game 1:27 into the third quarter on an unassisted tally. After an extra-man score from Maryland’s Mike Chanenchuk made it a one-goal game again, 5-4, at the end of the third quarter, Duke went up two, 6-4, 22 seconds into the final session with Dionne’s third goal of the game. Tommy Patterson provided the assist on what proved to be the deciding goal.

Joe Cummings netted his second tally of the game to pull the Terrapins within one and set up the thrilling finish. Maryland forced Duke into a turnover with 1:25 to play and quickly cleared. The Without a timeout remaining, the Terrapins managed two shots in the final 19 seconds, but Wigrizer stood tall and made both stops and picked up the loose ball with two seconds left to secure the victory.

“I love playing under two [minutes] with a one-goal lead,” Wigrizer said. “You know they’re going to shoot so I just stay relaxed and expect a shot and don’t be caught off guard whether there are 20 seconds or one second left.”

Costabile won 7-of-12 faceoffs and picked up three ground ball. Michael Manley helped anchor the defense with four grounders and two caused turnovers. Both squads had 31 shots, while Duke edged Maryland in the ground ball game, 27-26.

Duke will play the winner of the No. 2 Virginia – No. 3 North Carolina game. The championship game is set for 3:30 p.m., on ESPNU.

– News release

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Duke senior Robert Rotanz tallied four goals and junior goaltender Dan Wigrizer made four fourth-quarter saves to guide the eighth-ranked Blue Devils to a thrilling 12-10 victory over No. 14 Syracuse today at MetLife Stadium in the Konica Minolta Big City Classic.

The win is the second overall for Duke over the Orange and the first since 1978. The Blue Devils improve to 9-3 overall and stretch their win streak to six games. Syracuse falls to 4-4 overall.

Duke led 10-9 after a frenetic three quarters to set up an exciting final 15 minutes of lacrosse. In a game that featured five ties over the course of three quarters, Syracuse opened the final frame with a goal from JoJo Marasco to even the score for what proved to be the final time.

The final 12 minutes was all Duke as the Blue Devils held Syracuse to six shots, forced four turnovers and held it scoreless for the final 13:41. Having not trailed since 7:28 of the second quarter, Rotanz came up big for the fourth time in the afternoon to put Duke in front, 11-10 with 12:04 to play. Jordan Wolf provided the assist for Rotanz’s score as the senior midfielder matched his career high four goals. Wolf finished with two goals and three assists to lead all Duke scorers.

The Blue Devils defense frustrated the Orange throughout the final 12 minutes of the game, holding the Orange scoreless for the last 13:41. Junior midfielder Jake Tripucka iced the victory for Duke with his first goal of the game at the 3:05 mark of the fourth quarter.

The first 30 minutes were back and forth, featuring four ties overall. The Orange led 5-3 early in the second quarter before the Blue Devils went on a 4-1 run to end the first half with a 7-6 advantage.

Rotanz led the charge in the second frame with three of Duke’s four goals, including the man-up score that put the Blue Devils in front 7-6 with 1:31 to play in the quarter. Wolf chipped in a goal between Rotanz’s strikes, while junior David Lawson and sophomore Christian Walsh also contributed scores in the second quarter.

Duke carried that momentum into the third quarter with consecutive goals for the largest lead of the entire game by either team at 9-6. Justin Turri started the scoring, while Wolf added his second to push Duke’s run to four unanswered and six of the previous seven.

The Orange stopped Duke’s run at the 8:28 mark of the third quarter with a fast-break goal from Tommy Palasek. The goal ended Syracuse’s 14-minute scoreless stretch and jump-started a three-goal run by the Orange that tied the game 9-9 with 2:46 remaining in the third quarter. Palasek led the Orange with four goals and an assist for five points.

Sophomore Josh Dionne put Duke up again with his first tally of the game with 36 seconds left in the third session and set up the thrilling fourth quarter.

Duke outshot Syracuse 42-29 for the game and won the ground ball battle 25-20. Syracuse won 14-of-25 faceoffs, including 3-of-4 in the fourth quarter. Seniors CJ Costabile and Michael Manley both picked up a game-high six ground balls. Wigrizer finished with eight saves for Duke, while Dominic Lamolinara had 10 stops.

Duke closes out its regular season home schedule next weekend, hosting Marist on April 7 at 3 p.m.

– News release

Nnemkadi Ogwumike will end her sensational senior season right where she has the rest: at the Final Four.

Ogwumike made it happen on both ends of the floor with 29 points and nine rebounds Monday night despite constant double-teams, sending top-seeded Stanford past No. 2 seed Duke 81-69 in the Fresno Regional final for the Cardinal’s fifth straight Final Four berth.

Little sister, Chiney, did plenty to seal the Denver trip, too — along with everybody else. Chiney Ogwumike grabbed 17 rebounds to go with 12 points and freshman Amber Orrange came through with 13 points and four assists as the Cardinal extended their school-record winning streak to 32 games.

Nneka Ogwumike is headed back to the Final Four in her NCAA tournament farewell with that elusive championship still in reach. Stanford (35-1), looking for the program’s first title since 1992, will play Sunday night against Brittney Griner and unbeaten Baylor (38-0) at the Pepsi Center.

Chelsea Gray had 23 points, four rebounds and four assists and Shay Selby scored 11 in her final college game for Duke (27-6), which fell short of reaching the program’s first Final Four since 2006. The Blue Devils never got clicking on offense the way they had in their three NCAA wins.

“It was a good run,” SeIby said. “I think this one probably hurt the most. When you’re a sophomore or junior, it’s, `Oh, you have next year.’ I have no next year. Hopefully I can say I left something with them that will help them for next year.”

The projected No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, Nneka Ogwumike scored in the paint, on the perimeter, on leaping putbacks and even by knocking down a pretty 10-foot turnaround jumper late in the first half as the Cardinal built a comfortable 40-25 lead at the break.

“It was unfortunate for us. We tried to defend the inside and the outside. They hit some nice shots,” Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said.

Stanford boasted a strong rooting section that made the three-hour trip from the Bay Area to the Save Mart Center, including Cardinal football coach David Shaw and his wife, Kori. The couple sat alongside former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a matchup dubbed “nerd on nerd” by Chiney Ogwumike for the schools’ rigorous academic standards, Stanford’s smart girls aced their latest final. But this group has its sights set on winning two more to make good on the most important test and give Hall of Fame 26th-year coach Tara VanDerveer another long-awaited trophy for the case back on The Farm.

Just as she has wanted all season during a challenging schedule featuring games with Connecticut, Tennessee, Texas and Xavier, VanDerveer got contributions from most everybody in a balanced effort.

Joslyn Tinkle knocked down two 3-pointers in the opening five minutes and also made an early steal, then hit another 3 with 4:26 left that put Stanford ahead by 13. She finished with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.

On Saturday, Nneka Ogwumike almost single handedly carried the load, scoring 39 points in a 76-60 regional semifinal win over South Carolina.

“What I really liked about this game is we got contributions from different people,” VanDerveer said.

Gray, with another 50 or so family and friends cheering the guard who grew up about 75 miles north in Stockton, converted a three-point play with 10:46 remaining to pull Duke within 52-44, but the Cardinal answered yet again. Toni Kokenis rolled in a 3 on the other end.

Selby, who had a quiet night until midway through the second half, made a three-point play with 9:48 to go to keep her team close. But Duke missed three key scoring opportunities the next time down.

The Blue Devils switched to a zone in the second half after that same move worked so well in a 74-47 rout of St. John’s, but Orrange and Kokenis successfully drove and dished — and they also handled Duke’s trap press. Kokenis had eight of Stanford’s 21 assists.

“First, we allowed them to get 81 points. We’re not going to beat a team if it doesn’t start on defense,” Gray said. “They’re a very strong group. If one doesn’t have the shot the other one is looking for them.”

Elizabeth Williams, Duke’s star 6-foot-3 freshman playing with a stress fracture in her lower right leg, quickly scored to make it 48-39. She scored 12 points while playing much of the game in foul trouble.

Stanford got a scare with 6:51 left in the first half when Nneka Ogwumike scored on a drive to make it 30-16 and then turned into Kathleen Scheer’s right elbow. She briefly went down and took a seat for all of 1:23.

Stanford began the game 7 for 11 and had assists on each of those baskets, and the Cardinal limited Duke to one attempt thanks to Chiney Ogwumike’s six rebounds in the opening 8 1/2 minutes. Stanford held a 9-3 rebounding advantage after getting outboarded 38-36 against South Carolina two nights earlier. That became a focus for both teams in this game.

Duke was held to just 39.7 percent from the field, going 3 for 14 from 3-point range. That was a big change for a Blue Devils team that had shot above 50 percent in the first half of its previous six games, and went 53.7 percent overall Saturday night to follow up its season-best 65.6-percent performance from the field in a 96-80 second-round win over Vanderbilt in which they dished out 28 assists.

– News Release