WASHINGTON — It should be March.
North Carolina State capped a miraculous convention match run with an 84-76 win over North Carolina on Saturday evening, stealing a spot within the NCAA Match on the eve of Choice Sunday.
The Wolfpack, which misplaced seven of its final 9 regular-season video games, arrived in Washington because the No. 10 seed within the ACC match, needing to win 5 video games in 5 days to lengthen its season. And with an upset of Duke, an extra time victory over Virginia and its smothering of the Tar Heels on Saturday evening, it managed to do exactly that.
NC State final gained the ACC match in 1987 beneath legendary coach Jim Valvano.
“All people anticipated this to be Carolina and Duke,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts stated Friday. “Nicely, it is Carolina and NC State. We play fairly good basketball at NC State, too.”
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The Wolfpack have been led by fifth-year guard DJ Horne, who racked up 29 factors on 9-of-15 capturing whereas navigating foul bother for a lot of the second half. He fouled out with a bit of greater than a minute remaining.
DJ Burns Jr., who’s listed at 275 kilos, additionally triggered frequent points for the Tar Heels together with his bruising play within the submit, ending with 20 factors, seven assists and 4 rebounds.
With the win, NC State injected a little bit of chaos into the NCAA Match discipline lower than 24 hours earlier than the bracket is revealed. The Wolfpack is predicted to affix North Carolina, Duke and Clemson because the ACC groups within the discipline; Its win may quantity to catastrophe for Virginia, which was among the many key groups on the bubble.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.