Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Recaps

Greensboro, NC (SportsNetwork.com) – Evan Nolte and Mike Tobey scored 11 points apiece and No. 3 Virginia held on for a tougher-than-expected 58-44 win over Florida State in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday.

Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia’s leading scorer in the regular season, didn’t make a shot until the second half and finished with 10 points. Six of them came in a 10-2 run to end the game, which helped Virginia (29-2) stem a Florida State rally in the second half.

The top-seeded Cavaliers — the tournament’s defending champions — will play North Carolina in the semifinals on Friday after the fifth-seeded Tar Heels beat Louisville later Thursday.

They got second-leading scorer Justin Anderson back after an eight-game absence and had a 34-17 lead at halftime but let Florida State get within five down the stretch.

It was a six-point game with 3:22 remaining, but the ninth-seeded Seminoles scored just once after that, on a Phil Cofer dunk.

“In the second half there were enough plays that were made for us to be successful, but we labored,” said Virginia coach Tony Bennett. “We labored offensively at times and had break downs defensively, and we had just enough.”

Xavier Rathan-Mayes scored 13 points to lead Florida State (17-16), which had held on to beat Clemson in the second round on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers were coming off a 59-57 loss to Louisville in the final seconds on Saturday, which snapped their nine-game winning streak.

They had Anderson in the lineup for the first time since he broke a finger on his left hand in a win over Louisville Feb. 11. Anderson appeared close to a return before undergoing an emergency appendectomy last Thursday. He averaged 13.4 points during the regular season and was scoreless in 12 minutes against Florida State.

Virginia didn’t miss a shot over the first 8 1/2 minutes of the game, opening with a 16-2 run.

“They were extremely well prepared defensively and offensively,” said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton. “They made us work on defense.”

The Cavs shot better than 63 percent in the first half despite Brogdon going 0-for-1 in limited minutes. Anthony Gill led them with nine points in the half — his only nine points of the game.

Brogdon’s first field goal came with nine minutes remaining and gave Virginia a 41-34 lead.

Game Notes

Virginia took a 23-22 lead in the all-time series with its fifth consecutive win over the Seminoles … Florida State made the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament for a school-record ninth consecutive season and is the only team to reach that far in each of the last nine years.

Final Score: (19) North Carolina 70, (14) Louisville 60

Greensboro, NC (SportsNetwork.com) – Brice Johnson scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half and No. 19 North Carolina pulled away for a 70-60 win over No. 14 Louisville in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday.

The fifth-seeded Tar Heels (23-10) advanced to face top-seeded and national No. 3 Virginia in the semifinals on Friday.

Marcus Paige added 13 points in the win, Justin Jackson scored 10 and Kennedy Meeks had nine points and five rebounds after missing Wednesday’s win over Boston College with an illness.

Terry Rozier scored 20 points to lead Louisville (24-8), which had not played since knocking off Virginia on Saturday to finish the regular season. Wayne Blackshear scored 18 and Montrezl Harrell had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Cardinals.

Meeks, who played 19 minutes, scored the last four points of an 8-0 run that pulled the Tar Heels out of a one-point hole and gave them a seven-point lead with under four minutes remaining.

Blackshear’s 3-pointer cut the margin to four with 2:03 remaining but the Cardinals did not score again, missing their last five shots, including four tries from beyond the arc.

Louisville finished 4-for-22 from 3-point range while North Carolina was 5- for-11.

The Cardinals led by as many as 10 points in the first half on a Blackshear 3 that made it 30-20. North Carolina scored 12 of the last 17 points in the half to pull within 37-32 at the break.

Game Notes

The teams split the prior two games of the season series, with each winning at home … Louisville had won three consecutive conference tournament titles before this year, including two in the Big East and its only season in the American Athletic Conference last year.

Categorized in: NCAA Basketball