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ACC Roundup - NC State Rolls, UNC Seems Back On Track

And Pitt is still in first place.

By JD King
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NCAA Basketball: N.C. State at Boston College
 Feb 11, 2023; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack guard Terquavion Smith (0) and forward Greg Gantt (23) react during a timeout in the second half of a game against the Boston College Eagles at the Conte Forum.
Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Miami knocked off Louisville, 95-83, NC State hammered Boston College 92-62, Pitt got past Florida State 83-75, Virginia Tech knocked off Notre Dame 93-87, UNC beat Clemson 91-71 and Wake Forest survived Georgia Tech, 71-70.

Louisville was surprisingly tough, hanging in this one until quite late. El Ellis had 33 points and Jae’Lyn Withers had 18.

The Cards shot nearly 60 percent, but Miami feasted on Louisville's carelessness, as Kenny Payne noted:

“When you’re playing a team like Miami, you can’t give them 20 points off your turnovers. Whenever there’s adversity, we compound the mistakes. We can’t compound mistakes, especially on a night when we’re scoring the ball really well.”

Miami is playing brilliantly but given the NCAA’s sense of humor, they’ll end up in Purdue’s bracket with 7’4” Zach Edey.

There were a lot of questions about UNC and Clemson, mostly about UNC. Caleb Love, who never met a shot he didn’t like, actually hit most of them, including 6-9 on threes for 23 points.

The Tar Heels hit 15 threes while the Tigers were less effective from there, hitting just 7-20.

UNC also nearly shut Hunter Tyson out, holding him to just two shots in 32 minutes. He finished with three points. Chase Hunter shot just 3-16. We thought that UNC seemed disorganized and Clemson has been playing harder. Well, not Saturday.

It’s not very common in the ACC to get a 30 point road win, but that’s what NC State did at BC. Pretty much everyone shot well. DJ Burns was 19-15. Terquavion Smith was 7-14. Jarkel Joiner was 10-17 and Casey Morsell hit 5-9. The Pack also hit 15-30 on three pointers.

This is kind of amazing: State won by 30 despite taking just five three throws.

The primary difference was on threes though: State scored 45 points from the bonusphere to 12 for Boston College. Our math is always suspect, but that looks like a 33 point advantage, which is just about the winning margin.

Smith hit 1,000 points for his NC State career which consists of 52 games: not bad.

The Wolfpack is now 20-6 and is the only ranked ACC team in North Carolina. Presumably Kevin Keatts is off the hot seat.

At 18-7 and still tied for first in the ACC if only thanks to some terrible officiating in Charlottesville, so is Pitt’s Jeff Capel.

Pitt had a decisive stretch in the second half which gave Pitt a nine-point lead with just over two-and-half minutes to go. They iced the game on the line, hitting eight straight in winning time.

We didn’t see his promise at Duke so much but Federiko Federiko had 13 rebounds here, which is solid for a skinny freshman.

Blake Hinson and Jamarius Burton had 19 each to pace Pitt. Jalen Warley had 23 to lead FSU.

Normally retirement tours go better than Mike Brey’s have. The Irish lost again, this time to a hot-shooting Virginia Tech. The Hokies hit 54.8 percent overall and 13-30 on threes. Grant Basile had a spectacular game with 33, shooting 13-19. About the only complaint Virginia Tech might have is the rotation as they didn’t get much from the bench. All the starters finished in double figures except for Hunter Cattoor.

Nate Laszewski had an outstanding game for the Irish with 33 points.

It’s been a dreadful season for the Irish but one of the highlights lowlights is always reading South Bend columnist Tom Noie. He’s toned it down a bit since Brey announced his retirement, but he’s a nasty piece of work. Virginia Tech is still playing for the post-season, but the Irish are 10-15 and it’s one of those seasons where you just hope it ends soon.

Wake lost a few tight games but now they’ve won three straight. But 9-16 Georgia Tech was in position to win this game.

The Yellow Jackets were up 68-63 with 2:07 left but couldn't hold on and couldn’t stop Tyree Appleby.

Appleby scored a layup with :13 left to put Wake up by one. Deivon Smith got a layup with :06 left to put Tech back up, only to put Appleby on the line with :02 to go and, unlike in Cameron, he hit them both.

Tech hasn’t won a lot so you know this one hurt. It also is bound to hurt Pastner’s case to keep his job. Tech has played better lately but 9-16 is 9-16 and his career record at Tech is now a meager 102-111 over seven seasons.

No games until Monday when Miami visits Chapel Hill.

ACC Standings

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