Hokies seek upset of top-ranked Tar Heels
Sports Network | March 15, 2008
Charlotte, NC (Sports Network) - The nation's top-ranked team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, are set to play Virginia Tech in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament. The winner will advance to Sunday's championship game to face either second-seeded Duke or third-seeded Clemson.
Virginia Tech, the fourth seed, knocked off fifth-seeded Miami-Florida yesterday by a 63-49 final in the quarterfinal round. Tech is one of five ACC teams that has never won this tournament, and the club is 2-3 all-time at the event since coming over from the Big East Conference. The Hokies closed out the regular season with an 18-12 overall record, including 9-7 against conference foes.
As for top-seeded North Carolina, it rolled to an 82-70 victory over Florida State yesterday. UNC has 16 ACC Tournament titles to its credit, as the team is tied with Duke for the most crowns captured. The Tar Heels are 81-37 all- time in this event and won the title last season by knocking off NC State in the championship game. They are 30-2 overall this year, and the team captured the ACC regular season title by beating Duke in Durham on March 8th.
North Carolina owns a commanding 56-12 advantage over Virginia Tech in the all-time series between the teams, including a 92-53 romp over the Hokies on February 16th.
Malcolm Delaney and A.D. Vassallo both scored 15 points for Virginia Tech in the win over Miami yesterday. Deron Washington posted 14 points and 12 rebounds in only 21 minutes of action, and Jeff Allen added 10 points and 10 boards. The Hokies only scored four points from the foul line in the clash and finished with five more turnovers (17) than assists (12). Despite those negatives, they did manage to earn a commanding 51-25 rebounding advantage and limited the Hurricanes to 31.6 percent shooting from the floor. Vassallo is scoring 16.6 ppg this season, and he is a 40.1 percent shooter from three- point range. Washington adds 12.7 ppg, and Allen is contributing 12.3 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 60 steals and 34 blocks.
Tyler Hansbrough has been a consistently productive force for North Carolina this season, and the standout junior forward scored 22 points to help his Heels knock off Florida State yesterday. Wayne Ellington added 19 points for UNC, and Marcus Ginyard contributed 10 points. Star point guard Ty Lawson was quiet, scoring only eight points and dishing out a mere three assists. Super sub Danny Green was limited to four points, but the team won by double figures despite those sub-par efforts. North Carolina connected on 52.6 percent of its field goal attempts and posted 19 assists against only 10 turnovers. Hansbrough finished the regular season averaging 23.1 ppg while pulling down 10.5 rpg, and he is the favorite to be named national player of the year. A major key to the success of UNC has been the Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington and Green, the team's top four players, all shoot better than 80 percent from the foul line.
