2019 ACC Tournament Blog: Day 3

Chris Graham leads our live coverage of Day 3 at the 2019 ACC Tournament from courtside at the Spectrum Arena in Charlotte, N.C.

Scroll down under the Comments section to join the conversation.

AFP’s coverage of the 2019 ACC Tournament is presented by BearCreek.co

 

#1 Virginia 76, #8 NC State 56

First half

• Virginia leads 8-4 at the first media timeout (14:51). ‘Hoos are shooting 3-of-6 from the floor. State is 2-of-8. Pack is trying to post up whichever guard Kihei is on. Hasn’t worked yet.
• UVA leads 18-10, 11:52 media timeout. Mamadi Diakite just picked up his second foul. Kyle Guy has 11 points (4-of-5 FG).
• 11-0 NC State run since Diakite checked out with two fouls. State has made its last seven shots. Leads 21-18, 8:56/1st. UVA timeout.
• NC State leads 24-21 at the 7:25 media timeout. Pack has outscored UVA 18-5 over the last 6:04.
• NC State up 24-22 at the 3:55 media timeout. Not much to report from that four minutes. UVA has six turnovers. Kyle Guy has 14 points. Otherwise lots of heads up asses.
• Half: NC State 29, Virginia 27. ‘Hoos need to clean up the turnovers: six of them in the first half, leading to eight State points. Kyle Guy had 14 points; no one else has more than three.
• NC State is 8-of-14 in the paint; UVA is 5-of-10.

Second half

• State leads 34-32 at the 15:46 media timeout. Pack is clogging the lane, closing gaps. Virginia needs to make some jumpers to open things up.
• 11-1 Virginia run, ‘Hoos lead, 46-37, NC State timeout, 12:11 left. Jack Salt has 11 points, 4-of-5 from the floor, 3-of-4 from the line.
• Couple of heat checks for Kyle Guy, who has 23, on 8-of-11 shooting, 5-of-7 from three. UVA leads 51-40, 10:29 left.
• Kyle Guy is not human. He feels no pain. He cannot be reasoned with.
• Jack Salt is not human. He feels no pain. He cannot be reasoned with.
• UVA leads 59-43 at the 7:35 media timeout.
• Jack Salt has 18. He had scored a total of 18 in his last 10 games.

 

#4 Florida State 65, #4 Virginia Tech 63

A Terance Mann runner with 1.8 seconds left in overtime lifted #4 seed Florida State to a 65-63 win over #5 seed Virginia Tech on Thursday in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Florida State (26-6) advances to meet #1 seed Virginia (29-2) in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Friday.

The Hokies (24-8) had a final shot after the Mann make, but Nickeil Alexander-Walker missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.

It was the second OT win for Florida State over Virginia Tech in the past two weeks. FSU defeated Tech 73-64 in Tallahassee on March 5.

The ‘Noles had to rally to force the extra period, getting a contested three from the left corner from Devin Vassell with 4.5 seconds left in regulation to extend the game.

Vassell led Florida State with 14 points.

Alexander-Walker finished with 21 points for the Hokies.

 

#2 UNC 83, #7 Louisville 70

#2 North Carolina took control with an early 15-5 run, and #7 Louisville ran out of gas playing from behind the rest of the night, as UNC won, 83-70, Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2019 ACC Tournament.

The Cardinals (20-13) briefly got back into it with a 12-0 first-half run that cut the deficit to one, at 34-33, on a Dwayne Sutton three at the 5:35 mark.

But the Tar Heels (27-5) closed the half on an 11-2 run to go into the break up 10.

Louisville hung around for a long while, but a late 11-0 UNC run pushed the Heels’ lead to 18 on a Brandon Robinson free throw with 4:54 to go that made it 79-61, and it was effectively over from there.

Luke Maye and Coby White each had 19 points for Carolina, which also got 14 from Cam Johnson and 11 from Garrison Brooks.

Sutton had 14 points for Louisville, which had Malik Williams post a double-double – 10 points and 13 rebounds.

 

#3 Duke 84, #6 Syracuse 72

Zion Williamson, whom you may have heard of, he’s good.

Williamson, in his return from a knee injury caused by a shoe blowout three weeks ago, was 13-for-13 from the field, which is hard to do, even when five of the makes are dunks, and scored 29 points to lead #3 Duke past #6 Syracuse, 84-72, on Thursday in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Duke (27-5) advances to face #2 North Carolina (27-5) in Friday’s semifinals.

#1 Virginia (29-2) faces #4 Florida State (26-6) in the other semifinal.

RJ Barrett added 23 points and six rebounds for Duke, which led by as many as 17 in the first half before Syracuse (20-13) cut the margin to six at halftime.

Frank Howard scored 28 points, and Buddy Boeheim had 15 for the Orange, which played its second straight game without leading scorer Tyus Battle, who is out with a back injury.