It was a wild weekend in the ACC

No more #1 for North Carolina:
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – Bambale Osby dropped to the court with his hands covering his face. He knew his basket had given Maryland the lead late. He heard the horn as North Carolina’s final desperation shot clanged off the rim.

Yet he still couldn’t believe it.

“It didn’t feel real, man,” Osby said. “It was like, ‘Did this really just happen?”‘

The same could be said of the top-ranked — and formerly unbeaten — Tar Heels.

Osby’s layup with 21 seconds left helped Maryland stun North Carolina 82-80 on Saturday, giving the Terrapins a shocking win that will likely end the Tar Heels’ run atop the polls.

James Gist finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Terrapins (12-7, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who blew an 11-point lead midway through the second half but still held on in a back-and-forth finish to win here for the first time in five years.

The Tar Heels (18-1, 3-1) — off to their best start in two decades — had been rolling to big victories behind their crowd-pleasing and fast-paced transition attack.

But the Terrapins played tough and physical defense on Tyler Hansbrough, cutting off the All-American and making the Tar Heels work hard elsewhere for good looks in a largely halfcourt game. Maryland also showed the fortitude to bounce back after North Carolina pushed ahead by four in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

Hansbrough had 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead North Carolina, which shot just 38 percent and went 7-for-23 from 3-point range. The Tar Heels were off to their best start since winning 21 in a row in the 1985-86 season, and came in averaging 98 points per game at home.

N.C. State has to go to OT but they’ll take it, wish Granted:
RALEIGH, N.C. – Gavin Grant’s backcourt steal and layup with 2.1 seconds remaining in overtime gave NC State a 79-77 victory over No. 21 Miami Saturday night at the RBC Center.

Grant, who scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half, had just missed a drive to the basket with the Wolfpack trailing by two points. But freshman teammate J.J. Hickson was there for the put back with 3.9 seconds to play.

Then, Miami’s Anthony King tried to inbound the ball to teammate Jack McClinton, but threw it right to Grant instead. Grant, already a veteran of making last-second baskets to lead the team to wins over Villanova and Davidson, took the ball right over the top of King for the game-winning basket.

The Wolfpack, badly needing a win after two road losses to start the ACC season, led by as many as 12 points early in the second half, but Miami wiped that out behind the scoring of junior guard Jack McClinton, who made eight of his first nine field goals in the second half, including four 3-pointers. McClinton had made only one of his seven attempts in the first half.

Duke dominates Clemson and Devils become ACC’s #1 team:
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – DeMarcus Nelson scored 24 points and No. 7 Duke beat No. 24 Clemson 93-80 on Saturday night for their 22nd straight win in the series.

Kyle Singler added 17 points and keyed the game-breaking run for the Blue Devils (15-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). They blew a 12-point first-half lead, regrouped and eventually ran away from the Tigers while improving to 54-4 against them at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Gerald Henderson had 16 points, Nolan Smith scored 13 and Jon Scheyer finished with 12 for Duke, which overcame a serious height disadvantage by turning up the defensive pressure and riding some hot shooting to win its fifth straight.

Clemson held a 42-26 rebounding advantage, but the Tigers turned it over 21 times — 5.5 more than their average. Duke turned those miscues into 37 points and shot 53.4 percent, knocking down 10 of 11 shots in one early stretch.

K.C. Rivers scored 16 points to lead the Tigers (14-4, 2-2), who were denied their first victory in the series since an overtime triumph at home more than a decade ago. They haven’t won at Cameron since 1995.

About 15 seconds later, Nelson knocked down a 3 from the left corner, putting Duke ahead for good and starting the decisive 23-7 run.

Singler later hit 3s about a minute apart, capping the run by converting from the same spot that Nelson did to make it 81-65 with 5:45 left.

Demontez Still finished with 15 points and Trevor Booker had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Clemson, which had its two-game winning streak snapped.

Wake Forest wins Sunday, Big Four goes 3 out of 4 on ACC’s Wild Weekend:
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -James Johnson scored 21 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and Wake Forest remained unbeaten at home with a 74-57 win over Florida State on Sunday.

Johnson, a freshman, overcame early foul trouble by dominating the second half. He spearheaded a 13-0 run to put the Demon Deacons (12-5, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) ahead to stay, then hit a 3-pointer and had a steal and dunk to put Wake Forest ahead 68-55 with 4:48 left.

Johnson, who added nine rebounds, hit 10 of 15 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range as Wake Forest snapped a two-game losing streak by finally getting hot from the outside.

Coming in as one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the nation at 28 percent, the Demon Deacons shot 1 of 8 from behind the arc in the first half. With Johnson leading the way, Wake Forest connected on 5 of 7 long-range shots in the second half to improve to 11-0 at home.

Jeff Teague added 12 points and Harvey Hale scored 10 for Wake Forest, which recovered from road losses to Boston College and Maryland to win its ACC-best 15th straight home game dating to last season.

Ralph Mims had 17 points, Uche Echefu scored all 13 of his points in the first half and Toney Douglas came off the bench to score 10 on 4-of-13 shooting for Florida State (12-7, 1-3), which lost its third straight game.
*****from theacc.com*****