Hurricanes Fall to Tar Heels in ACC Tourney, 61-59

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -Kendall Marshall penetrated into the lane and found Tyler Zeller for a layup to beat the horn as No. 6 North Carolina rallied from 19 down in the second half to beat Miami 61-59 in Friday’s quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Zeller finished with 13 points for the top-seeded Tar Heels (25-6), who escaped the upset with a frantic comeback in the final 8 minutes. North Carolina struggled with turnovers all day against Miami’s zone defense and didn’t get much going inside. The team rallied with a flurry of 3-point shots before Zeller gave the Tar Heels their only lead on the final play.

The ninth-seeded Hurricanes (19-14) staged their own comeback from 10 down in the final minute to force overtime and beat Virginia in Thursday’s first round. But officials immediately ruled Zeller’s basket beat the horn, denying Miami another last-second victory.

It was North Carolina’s biggest comeback in a game in five years, dating to when the Tar Heels rallied from 20 down in the first half to beat Georgia Tech in 2006.

Harrison Barnes had 18 points and hit four of the Tar Heels’ 10 3-pointers, seven coming in the second half. Leslie McDonald added 11 points and hit three 3s as part of a smaller lineup that finally got the Tar Heels going after a sluggish first 30 minutes.

The Tar Heels advanced to Saturday’s semifinals to face the Boston College-Clemson winner.

North Carolina shot 56 percent and had just five turnovers following the break after committing 15 in the first half. The Hurricanes capitalized on those miscues all day, but the Tar Heels – who had struggled with their outside shooting for much of February – finally built some momentum with a series of four 3s in a 2-minute span to cut a 16-point deficit to 55-51 with 5:13 left.

Zeller tied the game on a hook shot in the lane with 45.3 seconds left, then Miami gave it back to the Tar Heels when Adrian Thomas couldn’t handle a pass from Malcolm Grant and fumbled the ball out of bounds with 18.6 seconds remaining.

The Hurricanes had committed just four team fouls to that point, so they fouled twice to take North Carolina out of rhythm in the waning seconds. Finally, Marshall took an inbound pass with 5.6 seconds left and drove by Julian Gamble in the lane before sending a short pass over to Zeller on the other side of the block.

Zeller quickly put it in, sending the home-state crowd filled with plenty of light blue into a loud roar of delight.

Grant scored 16 points to lead the Hurricanes.

March Madness
The Hurricanes are now 6-7 in ACC Tournament play and have advanced past the first round of competition in five of the last six seasons, including two straight. After dropping today’s heartbreaker to the Tar Heels, Miami is 0-3 versus top-seeded teams in the ACC Tournament, falling by an average of 3.0 points in each of those games. UM is 0-1 versus North Carolina in the tournament.

For Starters
For the second-straight game, Miami started Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, Rion Brown, Adrian Thomas and Reggie Johnson. Scott and Grant have started all 33 games for UM this season, while Brown made his second collegiate start on Friday.

From Downtown
Malcolm Grant hit four three-pointers (on seven attempts) to extend his three-point streak to an ACC-long 20-straight games, tying for the fifth-longest streak in Miami history with Johnny Hemsley (1999) and Steven Edwards (1996). With 150 career threes in just his second season as Hurricane, Grant is10th place all-time in program history in triples made, while his 89 three-pointers this season are fourth best in Miami history.

Grant — who entered the tournament leading the conference in three-point field goal percentage, three-pointers per game and free throw percentage — has hit a three in 30 of 33 games this season, with three-plus threes 19 times — including in 14 of the last 20 games.

Adrian Thomas hit four second half three-pointers to extend his three-point streak to 18-straight games for the second-longest active streak in the ACC behind Grant. His 86 three-pointers this season are fourth-most in a single season by a Hurricane, while his 197 career threes rank fifth. Thomas has hit three-plus threes 16 times this season and 33 times over his six-year career.

Hello Again
Adrian Thomas made his 129th career appearance for the Hurricanes on Friday afternoon, just one shy of the school record. Thomas’ former teammates James Dews (2006-10) and Brian Asbury (2005-09) hold the Miami record with 130 career games.

I’ll Take That
The Hurricanes registered a season-high 12 steals versus the Tar Heels, as North Carolina turned the ball over 20 times — a season high for a Miami opponent and two off UNC’s season high.The Hurricanes scored 27 points off Tar Heel turnovers.

Miami grabbed nine steals in the first half — which was just one short of the season high (for a game) entering today. Malcolm Grant grabbed a career-high four steals, while Durand Scott contributed a season-high tying three.

North Carolina registered one steal for the game.

Up Next
With a 19-14 overall record, a strong strength of schedule (47) and solid RPI (68), the Hurricanes await their postseason fate with Sunday’s selection shows. CBS will announced the NCAA Tournament bracket at 6 p.m., while ESPNU will air the NIT picks at 9 p.m.