LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Grant Nelson converted a go-ahead three-point play with 38 seconds remaining, and Alabama beat top-seeded North Carolina 89-87 on Thursday night to reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history.
Nelson finished with a season-high 24 points, 19 in the second half, and he blocked RJ Davis’ attempt at a tying layup after giving Alabama the lead. Rylan Griffen added 19 points, tying his career high with five 3-pointers, and Aaron Estrada also scored 19 for the fourth-seeded Crimson Tide (24-11).
The Tide face sixth-seeded Clemson on Saturday for a berth in the Final Four. The Tigers (24-11) defeated second-seeded Arizona 77-72 in the first semifinal at Crypto.com Arena.
After Nelson blocked Davis’ shot with 25 seconds left, Davis furiously dribbled around before missing a layup and the Tar Heels got called for a shot-clock violation with 8 seconds left. They were forced to foul, sending Nelson to the line. He calmly made both for an 89-85 lead.
Armando Bacot scored inside with 1 second left, leaving North Carolina trailing 89-87. The Tar Heels fouled Nelson again with 0.9 seconds left. He missed both and time expired on the blueblood Tar Heels, who own six national championships.
Bacot finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds for UNC (29-8). Cormac Ryan had 17 points and made five 3-pointers and Davis had 16 points.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Washington — Live updates from the ACC Tournament championship game where No. 10 seed NC State is taking on No. 1 seed North Carolina:
UNC takes first lead, but Burns gets going: UNC took its first lead of the game at 30-28 on two RJ Davis free throws with 4:50 remaining in the first half.
But NC State center DJ Burns scored the next seven points for the Wolfpack, including his first 3-pointer of the season as the shot clock was winding down. NC State led 35-32 with 2:39 remaining in the first half.
Burns was 0-for-4 on 3-pointers this season.
Davis delivers: North Carolina guard RJ Davis, the ACC Player of the Year, is heating up — and the Tar Heels are back in the game.
Davis has 11 points, including eight of North Carolina’s last 10 as UNC erased a 10-point NC State lead to tie it at 28 with 6:24 remaining in the first half.
Davis has three 3-pointers in the first 13:26 of the first half.
Horne scoring: NC State guard DJ Horne had nine points in the first 10 minutes of the ACC Tournament championship game on Saturday night.
The No. 10 seed Wolfpack led top-seed North Carolina 22-16 with 9:52 remaining in the first half.
Horne was 4-of-6 from the field, including 1-of-2 from 3-point range. Horne missed the first game of the tournament with a hip injury and came off the bench in the next three games. But he was back in the starting lineup for NC State on Saturday night.
Hot start: NC State made five of its first six field goal attempts, including three of four from 3-point range, and raced out to an 14-4 lead over North Carolina in the ACC Tournament title game.
Injury update: NC State guard Jayden Taylor did not start the game with an apparent left ankle injury. Taylor entered the game in the first half.
Pre-game: Tenth-seeded NC State headed to the ACC Tournament having lost four straight games.
But the Wolfpack wondered: “Why not us?” as the ACC Tournament tipped off in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
Four days, four games and four wins that later, that question remains for the Wolfpack, which is seeking its first ACC Tournament title since 1987.
NC State ((21-14) notched victories over No. 15 seed Louisville, No. 7 seed Syracuse, No. 2 seed Duke and No. 3 seed Virginia to reach the final.
Waiting for NC State on Saturday: Top-seeded North Carolina.
The Tar Heels (27-6) were dominant in the regular season run and are expected to claim an No. 1 seed when the NCAA makes selections Sunday. Yet it has been eight years – 2016 – since they cut down the nets at an ACC Tournament.
Washington — UNC is headed to the ACC Tournament championship game after beating Pitt 72-65 in the semifinal on Friday night at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
The Tar Heels got big shots in the final minutes from RJ Davis, who finished with a game-high 25 points.
UNC, ranked No. 4 in the country, now awaits the winner of NC State and Virginia in the other semifinal for Saturday night’s title game. The Heels can strengthen their argument for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a victory.
Davis’ three-pointer with 4:04 left put the Heels up for keeps at 65-62. He hit another momentous 3 to put UNC up 69-62 with around two minutes left.
Carlton Carrington scored 24 points to lead the Panthers, who now await Selection Sunday to see if they will receive a bid to play in the NCAA Tournament. Pitt lead by as many as eight in the first half and held a 35-33 edge at halftime.
The Tar Heels (27-6) are looking to win their first ACC Tournament since 2016, which also happened in DC. Armando Bacot scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for UNC. Bacot helped UNC out rebound Pitt 44-34.
Carolina has now won eight consecutive games dating back to a Feb. 13 loss at Syracuse. UNC also beat Pitt 70-57 on Jan. 2.
Standing roughly on Bryson City on the outline of the state on the Smith Center floor — a figurative 280 miles from Chapel Hill and a literal 28 feet from the basket — R.J. Davis put to the test the theory that he could score from just about anywhere Monday night.
And he did. From the left wing. From the right wing (mostly). From the logo. From more places and more times than anyone else had before him.
With a Smith Center-record 42 points, Davis not only accounted for more than half of North Carolina’s offense in a nail-biting 75-71 win over Miami, he put on the kind of unprecedented individual display that carved out new space in the very thick UNC record book.
North Carolina’s R.J. Davis (4) drives to the basket against Miami’s Kyshawn George (7) in the first half on Monday, February 26, 2024 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Davis scored 21 points in the first half. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
“Once I get my groove like that, it feels like I can’t miss,” Davis said. “I feel like I should have had 50. I missed free throws and whatnot. I just felt good. The shots felt good. The ball felt good. Everything felt great tonight.”
He was often open. But when Miami was in his face, he stepped back for more space. All the way to the logo, if that’s what it took.
“When he hit 30, with that little snatch-back on Matthew (Cleveland), I was like ‘Oh my God,’” Harrison Ingram said. “I was just smiling like, ‘You nice.’”
Whatever uncertainty there may have been about Davis’ candidacy for ACC player of the year, even as the front-runner, Monday removed all doubt.
Kyle Filipowski, Hunter Sallis, P.J. Hall? Fine players all. But there’s no more explosive or dangerous player in the ACC than Davis, and this was his finest performance yet, one that will unquestionably win over any voters left on the fence.
And did the Tar Heels ever need all of it.
Miami, playing without Nijel Pack and Wooga Poplar, proved surprisingly difficult to dismiss, even with Davis on this heater, in part because Bensely Joseph and Norchad Omier both hit the 20-point mark — Hurricanes big man Omier with a career-high four 3-pointers — and in part because Davis got almost no help.
Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
Every other Tar Heel finished in single digits: Armando Bacot with five points on only four shot attempts; Cormac Ryan with seven and Harrison Ingram with eight, both on 3-for-13 shooting; a paltry five bench points.
The Tar Heels couldn’t even put away the win at the free-throw line in the final minute. Davis went 1-for-2, Bacot missed a pair and Seth Trimble went 1-for-2 before Ja’Lyn Withers finally gave North Carolina a two-possession lead at the finish.
“It was a valiant effort,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “But R.J. Davis had the answer every time we made a run. He’s a fantastic player.”
North Carolina’s R.J. Davis (4) launches a wide open three-point shot in the second half against Miami on Monday, February 26, 2024 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Davis led North Carolina with 42 points in their 75-71 victory. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
Along with his 42 points, Davis picked up the 500th rebound of his career Monday, making him the first player in UNC history with 1,800 points, 200 3-pointers, 500 rebounds and 300 assists and tied him with Brad Daughtery for 10th all-time in scoring. Along with breaking Tyler Hansbrough’s building record, he put up a scoring gap over his teammates not seen since the days of Lennie Rosenbluth or George Glamack.
And after a 1-for-14 effort in Saturday’s win at Virginia, Davis still had something to prove Monday. He certainly put on a show. By halftime, when he was announced but not honored with North Carolina’s other scholar-athlete award winners, he already had 21.
He ended the first half with a basket and started the second with another. Midway through the second, when North Carolina needed a bucket, the Tar Heels ran a play to get Davis a look on the right wing. He missed. Next possession, different play, same look. This time, Davis was fouled. In one 192-second stretch of the second half, he hit four 3-pointers on five possessions.
“I know he hadn’t scored 42 points, but the type of performance he had tonight he’s been having all season,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “He put the team on his back. It wasn’t just his points. I thought he was great defensively. He took care of the basketball. Distributed. Rebounded. Boxed out. We needed every bit of his 42 tonight. He was fantastic.”
North Carolina’s R.J. Davis (4) leaves the court following a career night, scoring 42 points in the Tar Heels’ 75-61 victory over Miami, on Monday, February 26, 2024 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
At some point, Davis figured out — or realized it had been decided for him — that on this night, the Tar Heels’ only path to victory was R.J. Davis shooting them to a win. On a night when it came down to the final play, every one of his shots mattered.
Sometimes, the best player wins.
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This story was originally published February 26, 2024, 10:36 PM.
Sports columnist Luke DeCock joined The News & Observer in 2000 and has covered seven Final Fours, the Summer Olympics, the Super Bowl and the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup. He is a past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, was the 2020 winner of the National Headliner Award as the country’s top sports columnist and has twice been named North Carolina Sportswriter of the Year.
