NC State completes dream run, wins ACC tournament

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The drought is over after 37 long years. The "Cardiac Pack" are alive and well, and they'll keep dancing into the NCAA Tournament.

DJ Horne scored 29 points as North Carolina State, seeded 10th, pulled off its improbable fifth victory in five days on Saturday night, beating its rival in top-seeded North Carolina 84-76 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and clinch the league's automatic bid to the Big Dance.

For UNC (27-7) — ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 Poll — the loss snaps an eight-game win streak.

The play of DJ Burns Jr., who had 20 points and a career-high-tying seven assists, also helped power NC State (22-14) to its first ACC championship since 1987. NC State is the lowest-seeded team to ever win the conference tournament. In addition to the performance of Horne and Burns, Mohamed Diarra had a game-high 14 rebounds and 11 points, while Michael O'Connell chipped in 10 points.

UNC was aiming for its first ACC title since 2016 and looking to potentially seal up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. What hurt the Tar Heels was their defense, as they allowed NC State to shoot 54.9 percent from the floor, the third-best mark UNC has allowed to an opponent all season.

While RJ Davis — the ACC Player of the Year — and Armando Bacot stuffed the stat sheet for UNC, only one other Tar Heel scored in double figures. Davis finished with 30 points on 10-of-26 shooting while Bacot had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Harrison Ingram added 10 points.

While much of the game centered around an old-school battle in the post between Burns and Bacot, NC State knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in the opening five minutes of the game to jump out to a 14-4 lead.

UNC battled back behind the play of Davis, whose 3-pointer at the 6:46 mark in the first half tied the game at 28-28. Cormac Ryan's 3-pointer with two seconds in the first half left gave UNC a one-point advantage at the break.

The Wolfpack played through Burns much of the first half, giving him plenty of touches in the paint. The imposing forward either bulldozed his way to the basket or passed out to an open shooter when double-teamed. He finished the first half with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting to go with six assists.

NC State snatched the lead back in the second half. With 7:04 left to play, Horne was fouled as he sank a layup, and he let out a scream, flexed and high-fived Wolfpack fans sitting courtside before swishing a free throw to push his team's advantage to eight points. Horne — who fouled out with 1:17 to play — scored 16 points in the second half and shot 9-of-11 from the free throw line after intermission.

With less than a minute to play, two free throws from Diarra pushed NC State's lead to 12 points, its largest of the game. The Wolfpack led for more than 33 minutes.

This was the seventh time that UNC and NC State had met in the ACC tournament championship, where the Tar Heels are now 4-3 against the Wolfpack. The tournament will change next year when Stanford, Cal and SMU join the league, and the teams that finish in the bottom three of the regular season standings will be excluded from the field.

—Mitchell Northam, Field Level Media