2018 ACC Tournament: Semifinals set as North Carolina takes down Miami, 82-65

The ACC tournament semifinals are set, with sixth-seeded North Carolina taking the last spot with an 82-65 win over the Miami Hurricanes on Thursday. The Tar Heels will now matchup with second-seeded Duke in the nightcap Friday, with top-seeded Virginia playing fourth-seeded Clemson at 7pm.

Theo Pinson led the way for North Carolina with 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and 11 rebounds for the double-double in the win. Luke Maye was an abysmal 1-for-15 from the field, but grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Friday night’s game will be the third time the Tobacco Road rivals have faced off in the last four weeks (29 days to be exact).

North Carolina won the first game against the Blue Devils, 82-78, and Duke took the rematch 74-64. Each team won at home.

Duke-Carolina played in last season’s ACC tournament semifinals, with fifth-seeded Duke upsetting UNC, 93-83.

In Thursday’s game, neither team got off to a great start with no one scoring for the first 3:27 of the game before Miami’s Chris Lykes opened scoring with an acrobatic layup. North Carolina spotted the Hurricanes 14 points right out of the gate, failing to score on their first 13 shot attempts from the field.

North Carolina responded with a run of their own, scoring 17 of the game’s next 21 points to give the Heels a 19-18 lead with 5:57 to play.

The Tar Heels took the lead heading into halftime with 0.4 seconds on the clock in the first half as Walker was called for a foul on Cam Johnson as he went for the half-court heave. He made all three, putting North Carolina up 32-31 at the half.

With 18:04 left in the game and Carolina trailing by one, UNC’s Joel Berry went down hard. He walked off on his own strength, but went back into the locker room. He came back into the game a couple minutes later, but Johnson went back to get looked at after he was landed on following a blocked shot. He would return to the bench shortly after, and re-entered the game at the 11:44 mark.

Ja’Quan Newton, who hit the game winner in Chapel Hill just over a week ago, pulled the Hurricanes within one at 50-49, and the insanity just continued from there as both squads played a physical brand of basketball that was played almost exclusively in a six-point window.

With 6:49 left, two free throws from Johnson gave Carolina their biggest lead of the game at eight points. Newton hit a big three with just under five minutes left, but Theo Pinson responded with a three of his own to push the lead back to six points.

Miami would close within four, but a 6-0 run by the Tar Heels put UNC up 75-65 with two minutes to play, electrifying the Carolina blue clad fans in the Barclays Center.

In the early session, the Virginia Cavaliers got 19 from Kyle Guy to beat the Louisville Cardinals for the third time this season, and Clemson outlasted Boston College to earn spots in the semifinals. Duke ended Notre Dame’s ACC tournament stay in the first game of the late session.