ACC men’s hoops finals

Clemson 63, NC State 51
Maryland 68, Georgia Tech 61
Duke 66, Florida State 58
Virginia Tech 78, Virginia 75
Miami 77, Boston College 71

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -Trevor Booker scored 23 points and No. 12 Clemson improved to 16-0 with a 63-51 victory over NC State on Saturday.

The Tigers (2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) moved a game away from matching the school’s best start, first accomplished in 1986-87 and matched 20 years later.

Clemson used Booker’s inside dominance and a smothering defense to pull away from the Wolfpack (9-4, 0-1).

North Carolina State wiped out a 10-point first-half lead and tied the game at 33-all on Trevor Ferguson’s drive with 15:18 left. Then Booker led the Tigers on a 24-10 run.

Booker had 10 points during the run, including the last three baskets, to put Clemson up 57-43 with 5 minutes to go.

NC State never got the lead under double digits after that. Courtney Fells had 10 points to lead the Wolfpack, whose four losses have come to ranked opponents.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) – Maryland made up for a ghastly 30 minutes of basketball by finally being gracious enough to accept the generosity of bumbling Georgia Tech.

Eric Hayes scored a season-high 17 points, Greivis Vasquez had 16, and the Terrapins took advantage of 28 turnovers by the Yellow Jackets to pull out a 68-61 victory Saturday.

Maryland shot only 32 percent, went 5-for-26 from 3-point range and was outrebounded 49-39. But the Terrapins (12-3, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) won because they outplayed Georgia Tech when it counted most.

“Give Maryland credit,” Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt said. “Coming down the stretch when the game was right there to be had by both teams, they were a little bit stronger than us.”

And far more careful with the basketball.

“They turned the ball over for us and we were getting points off that,” Hayes said. “It was definitely one of the keys to the game.”

After taking a 50-40 lead with 9:44 left, the Yellow Jackets went 4-for-13 from the field with five turnovers.

“We really didn’t give ourselves a chance to win,” Hewitt said.

Georgia Tech (9-6, 0-2) lost to Virginia in overtime in its ACC opener before falling short against Maryland.

“That’s who we are,” Hewitt said. “Right now we’re not good enough to win those type of games.”

Maryland scored the game’s final seven points to earn its seventh straight win over Georgia Tech, a streak that began in January 2005. The victory also helped erase the sting of a 1-point home loss to Morgan State on Wednesday night.

Two free throws by Adrian Bowie put the Terrapins up 63-61 with 57 seconds remaining, and Vasquez added two foul shots with 17 seconds to go. Another free throw by Hayes with 6 seconds left clinched it.

“We’re going to have games where we don’t shoot well,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “Finding ways to win is the key.”

Alade Aminu had 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for the Yellow Jackets, and Gani Lawal had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“We just got outworked in the last few minutes,” Lawal said. “They just wanted it more.”

Down by 10, the Terrapins used a 15-2 run to take their first lead since 4-3. A three-point play by Vasquez made it 52-47, and Hayes followed with successive 3-pointers before capping the surge with a driving layup.

Although Georgia Tech moved back in front, the momentum had shifted.

After a three-point play by Lewis Clinch put the Yellow Jackets up 42-33 with 16 minutes left, Hayes sank a 3-pointer and Sean Mosley added a layup. But the Terrapins made only one basket over the next six minutes, and a fadeaway jumper by Clinch gave Georgia Tech its bigg est lead.

But the Yellow Jackets couldn’t hold on, mostly because they couldn’t maintain a grip on the basketball.

Georgia Tech led 31-26 at halftime despite committing 18 turnovers. That’s because the Terrapins went 10-for-40 from the floor (25 percent) and missed their first 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

Dave Neal was 1-for-8, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range, and Hayes was 1-for-7.

“We can shoot the ball, obviously, much better than that,” Williams said. “It might have been a hangover from the Morgan State game. (But) I thought we played really well down the stretch when we had to win the game.”

Henderson Leads No. 2 Duke To 66-58 Win Over Florida State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Duke’s Gerald Henderson was just about the only player on target Saturday and that was the difference for the Blue Devils.

The 6-foot-4 junior swingman scored a career-high 25 points, leading the second-ranked Blue Devils to a 66-58 victory at Florida State.

Duke (14-1, 2-0 ACC) ran off the first nine points of the second half during a 41-11 run to build their largest lead of the game, 46-21 with 12:45 left.

Toney Douglas led Florida State (13-3, 0-1) with 18 points, but was just 7-of-23 from the floor as the Seminoles shot just 31 percent.

The first half was believed to be one of the lowest scoring in the ACC since a 45-second shot clock was introduced in the 1985-86 season. It was later cut to 35 seconds.

Duke led 19-14 at the break, making just five field goals — one on a goaltending call to go along with four baskets by Henderson. Florida State scored only four points in the final 13:07 of the half, going scoreless for 7 minutes, 58 seconds at one stretch.

In the second half, the Blue Devils went 7:14 without a basket until Henderson’s layup with 5:31 left gave Duke a 53-42 lead.

Vassallo lifts Hokies to third straight win over Cavaliers

A.D. Vassallo scored 14 of Virginia Tech’s final 17 points and hit four clutch free throws in the final 10 seconds en route to a 29-point performance to lift the Hokies past in-state rival Virginia 78-75 in an ACC game played Saturday afternoon at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg.

The win – the Hokies’ fifth in their past six games – marked Tech’s third straight over the Cavaliers and moved the Hokies to 10-5 overall on the season, 1-1 in the ACC. Tech also played its first home game since Dec. 14 and the Hokies moved to 5-1 at Cassell, all of which came just a few days after getting beat handily at Duke.

Tech appeared to have this game under control when it used a 15-4 second-half run to take a 64-49 lead on Vassallo’s 3-point play with 5:23 remaining. But the Cavaliers used a barrage of 3-pointers from Mustapha Farrakhan to climb back in the game. Farrakhan hit four 3-pointers in the final 4:40 and was fouled on another 3-pointer, heading to the line and canning all three free throws.

Virginia cut the Tech lead to 72-70 with 49.7 seconds left on Farrakhan’s final 3-pointer. But on the Hokies’ next possession – coming out of a timeout – Vassallo nailed a short jumper over UVa’s Mamadi Diane with four seconds on the shot clock and 19 on the game clock to give the Hokies a 74-70 lead.

Miami Bests Boston College, 77-71

BOSTON, Mass. (AP) – Dwayne Collins had 13 points with seven rebounds and drew a key charging foul on Tyrese Rice in the final minute Saturday night to lead Miami to a 77-71 victory over No. 17 Boston College.

It was the second straight loss for the Eagles (13-4, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) since they beat top-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill to jump into The Associated Press Top 25. BC lost to Harvard on Tuesday and has another top ACC opponent next: No. 4 Wake Forest on Wednesday.

BC pulled within one point, 70-69, thanks to Reggie Jackson’s steal and a pair of free throws with 33.9 seconds left. Brian Asbury hit two free throws for Miami, then Collins stood under the basket when Rice drove the lane and took the offensive foul.

Collins went 11-for-14 from the line for Miami (12-3, 1-1), which has won nine of 10.

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