Virginia went without a basket from the field for more than eight minutes in a key stretch in the second half, and North Carolina rode a 15-2 run to take home the 2016 ACC Tournament championship, 61-57.
UNC (28-6, 17-4 ACC) trailed 44-40 after an Anthony Gill layup with 9:15 to go, and then a lid mysteriously appeared over the UVA bucket.
Virginia (26-7, 15-6 ACC) missed its next 12 shots as Carolina built a 55-46 lead.
A Malcolm Brogdon three with 1:39 to go finally broke the field-goal drought and cut the deficit to six, and an Evan Nolte three on Virginia’s next possession made it 55-52 UNC with 57 seconds left.
Isaiah Hicks got a contested runner in the lane to roll around the rim and in with 30 seconds left to extend the Heels lead back to five.
Two Joel Berry free throws made it 59-52 UNC with 15 seconds left. London Perrantes scored on an uncontested layup with nine seconds left, and then after Marcus Paige missed the front end of a one-and-one, Gill connected on his second three-pointer of the season to make it 59-57 with six-tenths of a second left.
Virginia fouled Joel Berry on the inbounds, and he drained both free throws to seal the final outcome.
Brogdon led UVA with 15 points, but he was just 6-of-22 from the field and 2-of-9 from three-point range.
Gill had 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and six rebounds for the ‘Hoos, who shot 36.5 percent (23-of-63) from the field and 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from three-point range.
Berry had 19 to lead Carolina, which shot 51.1 percent from the field (24-of-47) and 25 percent from three-point range (3-of-12).
Both teams now await their NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday.
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