All North Carolina ACC semifinals first in 40 years

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Posted 7:16AM on Saturday, March 15, 2003

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Atlantic Coast Conference's ``Big Four'' are back in familiar surroundings, fighting for a piece of the league's tournament title. Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State - the traditional four powerhouses of the ACC - all advanced to Saturday's semifinals for the first time since 1963 and only fourth time in the 50-year history of the conference's postseason. In tournament history, a Big Four team has won 42 of the 49 titles. Now one of them is assured another. The most surprising participant is seventh-seeded North Carolina, which bounced second-seeded Maryland out of tournament with an 84-72 upset on Friday. ``It means a lot, but I can't hang my hat on this victory,'' said forward Jawad Williams, who scored a career-high 25 points. ``It's a good feeling right now, but I can't celebrate too much because we have to get ready for tomorrow.'' Up next for the Tar Heels (17-14) is third-seeded Duke, an 83-76 winner over Virginia. It's a rematch of Sunday's regular-season finale, when North Carolina upset the Blue Devils (22-6). The Blue Devils are looking for their fifth consecutive tournament title, while North Carolina will be trying to improve on its storied ACC history. The win over Maryland gave the Tar Heels a 31-10 in ACC tournament play at Greensboro Coliseum, where they have won seven titles. They also have 100 victories overall in their home away from home. Raymond Felton had 20 points and 10 assists, Melvin Scott added a career-high 19 points and Rashad McCants had 12 points and 11 rebounds for North Carolina, which avenged its 40-point loss to No. 14 Maryland on Feb. 22. That was North Carolina's worst ACC loss in school history. ``We were embarrassed the last time we played them,'' forward David Noel said. ``When you get beat by 40, you don't want to see anybody on campus the next day. ``That was the low point of the season. This is the high point. It doesn't get any better.'' The loss was yet another ACC tournament failure for Maryland (19-9). The Terps have been to the tournament semifinals the past eight years, but haven't won a title since 1984. ``We didn't show enough emotion or passion to win this tournament,'' said Drew Nicholas, who scored 18 points for Maryland. ``This is as good as it gets. When I walked on the floor, I wanted to play three games this weekend and we didn't play well enough to make that happen.'' Meanwhile, Daniel Ewing scored a career-high 32 points as Duke extended its record ACC tournament winning streak to 13 straight. Ewing was 11-for-16 from the field, including five 3-pointers, and five-of-five from the foul line to best the 19 points he scored against Georgetown on Jan. 8. Dahntay Jones hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers in a span of 47 seconds down the stretch to seal it for the Blue Devils, who last lost in the ACC tourney to North Carolina in the 1998 title game. Virginia (15-15) lost its 13th straight postseason game, including an 0-8 record under coach Pete Gillen. Top-seeded Wake Forest (24-4) had a surprisingly difficult time getting past ninth-seeded Florida State. Josh Howard, likely to be named the ACC Player of the Year next week, struggled but still scored 17 points to lead the ninth-ranked Demon Deacons to a 69-61 victory over Florida State. ``You know, he doesn't dress in a phone booth,'' Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said. ``But in my opinion, he's the player of the year in the country ... and he's still the unanimous vote on this team on who would take the last shot. ``While his numbers might be gaudy, he has carried this team all year.'' Howard finished 7-of-15 from the floor 0-for-3 from 3-point range and went 3-for-6 at the line. He credited Florida State (14-15) for attacking the Deacons and disrupting his game. ``We've gained this status now and because of that, every team's going to give us their `A' game,'' Howard said. ``That's what Florida State did today.'' The Demon Deacons will play North Carolina State, a 71-65 winner over Georgia Tech. Josh Powell had 18 points, and Scooter Sherrill and Marcus Melvin added 15 each to help the fourth-seeded Wolfpack (17-11) make a case for NCAA tournament consideration. Many NCAA tournament bracket experts believed N.C. State needed to at least beat the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets (14-14) to be invited as an at-large team to the field of 65. ``Every game we've had for the last two weeks has been like a must-win game,'' Julius Hodge said. ``We knew if we wanted to have any kind of great postseason chances we would have to win and we got it done. We really played with urgency.''