Clemson withstands Tar Heels run, advance to ACC semis

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Clemson's Dillon Hunter defends against North Carolina's Jaydon Young in the first half of the Tigers' 80-79 win in the ACC quarterfinals March 12, 2026 at Spectrum Center.

North Carolina gave Clemson a scare, but the Tigers are advancing to the ACC tournament semifinals. 

The Tigers, who held off the Tar Heels 80-79 Thursday at Spectrum Center had an 18-point lead with just under 12 minutes to go. But the Tar Heels would not go away, climbing within one with 2.7 seconds to play. Clemson’s Nick Davidson missed both free throws, but the Tar Heels’ final heave was well short. 

“It's hard late in a game like that,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “North Carolina has so many guys that can make threes, and they did some nice actions. Sometimes we were there, and they still shot them up and in. You know, that’s hard. They’re good enough to drive to the basket and give them credit for some really excellent late game execution, for sure.”

North Carolina got off to a decent start, and it left Brownell searching for what to do to get them off rhythm. He found it in the latter part of the first half into the second. 

“I didn’t think we were executing what we wanted to do very well. It’s hard in a quick turnaround like this,” Brownell said. “It’s hard to practice a bunch of the things you want to practice. But I thought we made adjustments within the game and then got a handle on what they were trying to do and guarded them much better. You know, for the most part, we kept them out away from the low post. I thought our transition defense was pretty good. And then I think some of that's a result of us scoring. When we score, it just energizes you a little bit. It also makes them take the ball out of bounds and allows us to set our defense.”

North Carolina’s focus will shift towards the NCAA tournament, where most early projections have the Tar Heels as a five or six seed. 

“I’m thinking about our team and thinking about these kids and thinking about the NCAA tournament next week,” Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis said. “... I talked to the team about having that hunger and that thirst. The hunger to compete and thirst to prepare, to practice. The hunger and thirst to play together as a team and as a group as long as we can.”

For the Tigers, they get another shot at Duke, who survived an 80-79 scare against Florida State. When the two met in February, the Blue Devils won 67-54. Duke is without Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba due to injuries, but those two scored three and six points respectively in the regular season meeting. 

Brownell knows the challenge ahead, and he mentioned looking forward to playing a more basketball. It starts on Friday.

“We’re pouring it all out,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to win every game. I mean, that's what competitors do. We’ve got a lot more work to do. Hopefully we got a lot of basketball ahead of us, but ready to get back to the hotel, get rested up, recover and then get on to the next game tomorrow.”

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