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ACC Basketball Notebook: Tuesday, Feb. 26

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acc basketballThree ACC games are on Tuesday night’s docket as the stretch run to the end of the regular season continues, including No. 3 Duke’s road trip to No. 20 Virginia Tech.

No. 5 North Carolina plays host to Syracuse, while Miami visits Wake Forest.

ACC dominates AP poll

Three teams in the current ACC standings are ranked among the top five of this week’s AP poll – No. 2 Virginia, No. 3 Duke and No. 5 North Carolina. No. 18 Florida State and No. 20 Virginia Tech complete a five-team ACC contingent.

The ACC owns three of the top five teams in the AP poll for the 41st time in its history, the first time since the final poll of 2004-05 (No. 2 UNC, No. 3 Duke, No. 5 Wake Forest on March 15), and the fifth time at this stage of the season or later.

ACC Notes

In addition to the three conference tri-leaders, Virginia Tech owns double-digit wins in ACC play for the fourth year in a row, and Florida State hits the 10-win mark in conference play with Monday night’s 68-61 win over Notre Dame, marking the seventh time the Seminoles have reached double-digit wins in ACC play, and the second time in three years.

UNC has won at least 12 regular-season ACC games for the 26th time in program history and the 11th time in 16 seasons under head coach Roy Williams.

Duke is the nation’s only Division I team that remains unbeaten on the road.

Second-ranked Virginia set an ACC record and tied an NCAA mark as it earned its fifth victory of the season on the home court of an AP-ranked opponent with Saturday’s 64-52 win at No. 18 Louisville … the Cavaliers’ previous such wins came at No. 23 Maryland on Nov. 28, at No. 23 NC State on Jan. 29, at No. 8 UNC on Feb. 11 and at No. 20 Virginia Tech on Feb. 18.

In ACC history, 163 teams have started 1-4 or 0-5 in conference play … No. 18 Florida State, at 10-5 after a 1-4 start, will become only the fourth of those to finish with a winning conference record.

No. 3 Duke’s RJ Barrett recorded his second consecutive 30-point game, and sixth this season (one shy of tying the ACC freshman record set last season by the Blue Devils’ Marvin Bagley III) with 30 points on 14-of-20 shooting.in Saturday night’s win at Syracuse,

No. 5 North Carolina is 7-3 against fellow AP-ranked teams this season. The seven wins are the most for UNC against ranked teams in the regular season since 2007.

Over his last three games, No. 20 Virginia Tech’s Kerry Blackshear Jr. is averaging 24.7 points, 12.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while shooting an impressive 71.4 percent from the field.

Miami finished with 20 assists in Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech, its most in ACC play this season … the Hurricanes had assists on each of their first 10 field goals, and on 12 of the 13 field goals that they made in the first half.

In ACC play, Wake Forest leads the conference in offensive rebounds (14.29 per game) and offensive rebounding percentage (35.2) … the Demon Deacons have had at least 10 offensive rebounds in 21 of 26 games this season, including 13 of 14 ACC games.

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Contributors

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