ACC roundup

Duke stops UNC, N.C. State crushes UVa.'s NCAA hopes

Jason Williams scored 20 points in Duke's victory against UNC. AP

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The deliberate pace North Carolina needed was frustrating for No. 3 Duke, but it was a perfect tune-up for the rest of the postseason.

North Carolina slowed Friday night's game against Duke to a crawl, enabling the Tar Heels to hang with the Blue Devils for much of the contest before eventually bowing out 60-48 in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament.

The defeat officially ended Carolina's (8-20) record of 27 straight appearances in the NCAA tournament and secured its first 20-loss season in school history.

"That was an NCAA tournament game," said Jason Williams, who led Duke with 20 points. "Tournament games are going to be slowed down and you are going to be fighting for possession after possession. That's what happened here and that's what we'll face the rest of the way."

After losing the first two meetings with Duke (27-3) by a combined 54 points -- including Sunday's 93-68 drubbing -- the Tar Heels knew they couldn't run with the Blue Devils. Needing to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to extend the season, coach Matt Doherty spent the week working on a completely different game plan.

What he came up with was one of the slowest tempos in North Carolina history, with guard Adam Boone often stopping the ball at midcourt as 10 or more seconds ticked off and the Tar Heels let the clock wind all the way down before taking their shots.

"You don't want to have to play that way, but it was the only chance we had to win," said Doherty, who had clearly been crying in the locker room.

"We worked on it and I went to Jason [Capel] and said this is the way we need to play to try to beat Duke and he said, 'Let's do it. I'm with you.' And we thought we were going to win."

The strategy almost worked as Carolina shot 51 percent while taking just 29 shots and keeping the score close throughout.

The Tar Heels had an 11-10 lead with 12:26 to play -- but when their shots stopped falling it dropped them into a hole. North Carolina went scoreless for almost 4 minutes, then Mike Dunleavy hit a pair of 3-pointers to give Duke a 26-14 lead.

So the Tar Heels brought the game to a near stop with Boone holding the ball at midcourt. The pace was agonizing for the fans, who booed loudly every time Boone stood idle, and frustrating for the Blue Devils, who crouched low and began clapping in rhythm to keep their focus.

No matter to the Tar Heels, who closed the half with an 8-2 run to only trail 28-22 at the break.

The slow pace continued in the second half, allowing the Tar Heels to twice climb out of 10-point holes. Working to their advantage was Williams' early shooting woes -- he had just six points with 10 minutes remaining.

But he found his scoring touch at the worst possible time for North Carolina. After the Tar Heels pulled within 37-34, Williams made them pay when Carolina's Jawad Williams missed a pair of free throws.

Instead of making it a one-point game, it went the other way when Jason Williams hit a soft jumper after the miss, then converted a North Carolina turnover into a 3-pointer for a 44-34 Duke lead.

When North Carolina again rallied to cut it to 58-43 with 4:35 to play, Williams came up with a steal that led to his own dunk then hit a quick 3 to push Duke's lead to 53-43. Duhon followed with another 3 to make it 56-45 with 1:14 to play and seal the win.

Carlos Boozer finished with 11 points, and Dunleavy had 10.

N.C. State 92, Virginia 72

If wasn't too long ago that North Carolina State fans were complaining about the Wolfpack's inability to keep up with Virginia and marveled at the coaching job of league newcomer Pete Gillen.

Things have changed quickly.

Anthony Grundy scored a career-high 32 points as the Wolfpack beat the Cavaliers 92-72 in the Atlantic Coast Conference quarterfinals Friday and swept the three meetings between the teams this season.

"Everybody wants the quick fix. As soon as a new coach comes in everybody wants to go to the NCAA tournament," said Archie Miller, one of several shooting stars for N.C. State in the 20-point blowout. "Virginia is a heck of a team, but coach (Herb) Sendek does a heck of a job with our guys.

"The chemistry we've developed just happens sometimes," Miller added. "And sometimes it's about the players wanting to do it instead of blaming it on the coach all the time."

The Wolfpack (21-9) had its best outside shooting game of the season and one of the best long-range displays in ACC tournament history, making its first eight 3-pointers of the second half and 13-of-18 overall.

"Some of those shots were deep -- 23, 24, 25 feet -- but we didn't have a hand in their face all the time and you've got to do that," Gillen said. "We have to contest 3s better. But Grundy just took over, and he beat us on one-on-one moves. He did that all year against everybody. He hit spinning shots, leaning shots, hanging shots."

Miller had 16 points -- all in the second half -- and Ilian Evtimov added 15 as the Wolfpack shot 60 percent and set its ACC tournament record for 3-pointers in a game. N.C. State had 12 two previous times.

It was also the most the Wolfpack had scored in the tournament since a 109-108 loss to Maryland in 1978.

"Virginia battled but we were at the top of our offensive game," Sendek said.

Fifth-seeded Virginia (17-11) hasn't won an ACC postseason game since 1995, dropping its seventh straight as Gillen fell to 0-4.

N.C. State, the fourth seed, advanced to play top-seeded Maryland in the semifinals. The Terrapins beat Florida State 85-59 earlier in the day.

While Grundy was N.C. State's best overall player again, it was the shooting of Miller and Evtimov that pushed the Wolfpack over the top in the second half.

Miller made three straight 3-pointers in the opening 3:59, while Evtimov made three over a 6 1/2-minute span.

"When the first one goes down you always feel good about taking the next one," Miller said.

Grundy's shot behind the arc with 6:44 left gave N.C. State a 73-60 advantage and forced yet another timeout from Gillen, who used several stoppages to try to cool off the Wolfpack.

"When a game gets very, very intense you've got to keep matching the intensity, but unfortunately we didn't do that," Gillen said.

The Cavaliers started 9-0 and were ranked as high as fourth on Dec. 31, but a home loss to the Wolfpack in their ACC opener started a slide that covered the final 2 1/2 months of the regular season.

Virginia also lost to N.C. State 85-68 a month ago in Raleigh and after starting 14-2, went 3-9 down the stretch to make its NCAA situation tenuous.

"We've got a pretty good RPI, but today was a pretty big day for us," Gillen said when asked about the NCAAs. "I don't know what will happen."

Roger Mason Jr. led the Cavaliers with 24 points, but Virginia had to play a crucial portion of the second half without Travis Watson, who led the ACC with 16 double-doubles.

Maryland 85, Florida State 59

The Terrapins turned to their reserves for a much-needed second-half spark Friday and pulled away to beat Florida State 85-59 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals.

"I had a terrible game, I just stunk out there," said Wilcox, who averages 11.9 points and 7.6 rebounds but finished with just four points and eight boards Friday.

"I felt bad that I let my teammates down, but they picked me up on the bench, and Tajh Holden and Ryan Randle picked it up for me on the floor."

The Terrapins (26-3) squandered a 12-point lead at the start of the second half to let eighth-seeded Florida State (12-17) briefly make it an uncomfortably close game.

Wilcox was benched during a timeout. Holden replaced him and teamed with Randle to give Maryland energy during a 21-0 second-half run that put the Seminoles away.

"For whatever reason, it took us a long time to get moving," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "We needed two timeouts to stop Florida State's run and then we raised it up 10 to 15 percent in terms of our activity. Holden gave us that energy we needed to get moving and Ryan helped, too."

Maryland, outright ACC regular-season champions for the first time since 1980, moved into the tournament semifinals for the eighth straight year. On Saturday, the Terrapins face the winner of Virginia-North Carolina State.

Juan Dixon scored 20 points, and Byron Mouton added 18 to lead Maryland, but all the praise went to Holden, who had four points in 15 minutes, and Randle, who added six points in 11 minutes.

Wake Forest 92, Georgia Tech 83

Wake Forest is still looking for that 40-minute game, but a spectacular opening 20 was good enough to advance in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Friday night.

Josh Howard scored 23 points and Darius Songaila added 22 as the Demon Deacons shot 64 percent in the first half then held off Georgia Tech 92-83 in the quarterfinals.

Skip Prosser won his ACC tourney coaching debut as third-seeded Wake Forest (20-11) advanced to the tourney semifinals against No. 2 seed Duke, a 60-48 winner over North Carolina.

But like most games the last month for Prosser and the league's most experienced team, it didn't come easy.

"It's a major concern for this team, to keep things up for 40 minutes," Songaila said. "We can be as good as anybody for 20 minutes or 30, but the key is to keep it up for 40. We seem to have 10-minute letdowns. For us to go far in the postseason we can't have that."

The Demon Deacons built a 17-point halftime lead only to watch a 19-6 opening second-half run by Georgia Tech make things interesting over the final 10 minutes as Wake Forest got into foul trouble.

The Yellow Jackets got within four three times. Then, after Wake Forest pushed the lead to 11 with 5:07 left, they closed to 81-78 on a 3-pointer by Tony Akins, who finished with 22 points.

But Songaila scored in the lane with 1:27 left and Craig Dawson added a fastbreak layup from Howard 22 seconds later to help close the deal as Wake Forest scored its most points in the ACC tourney since getting 100 in a 1975 loss to North Carolina.

"I never felt easy at the half," Prosser said. "I just knew they were going to make a run, and with the severe foul trouble we had we were sort of running out of guys. But I'm proud our kids got out of here and live to fight another day in the ACC."

It's the seventh time in the past 10 seasons the Demon Deacons have won at least 20 games. The previous six were under former coach Dave Odom.

The sixth-seeded Yellow Jackets (15-16) started the ACC season 0-7, but had the greatest turnaround in league history by winning seven of its last nine and came into the postseason with a five-game winning streak.

But the Demon Deacons were hot out of the gate, making 15 of their first 21 shots to jump on top early.

"It's difficult for me to see this thing end," said an emotional Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt.

 

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