WASHINGTON — It must be March.
North Carolina State capped a miraculous conference tournament run with an 84-76 win over North Carolina on Saturday night, stealing a spot in the NCAA Tournament on the eve of Selection Sunday.
The Wolfpack, which lost seven of its last nine regular-season games, arrived in Washington as the No. 10 seed in the ACC tournament, needing to win five games in five days to prolong its season. And with an upset of Duke, an overtime victory over Virginia and its smothering of the Tar Heels on Saturday night, it managed to do just that.
NC State last won the ACC tournament in 1987 under legendary coach Jim Valvano.
"Everybody expected this to be Carolina and Duke," Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said Friday. "Well, it's Carolina and NC State. We play pretty good basketball at NC State, too."
The Wolfpack were led by fifth-year guard DJ Horne, who racked up 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting while navigating foul trouble for much of the second half. He fouled out with a little more than a minute remaining.
DJ Burns Jr., who is listed at 275 pounds, also caused frequent issues for the Tar Heels with his bruising play in the post, finishing with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds.
With the win, NC State injected a bit of chaos into the NCAA Tournament field less than 24 hours before the bracket is revealed. The Wolfpack is expected to join North Carolina, Duke and Clemson as the ACC teams in the field; Its win could amount to disaster for Virginia, which was among the key teams on the bubble.
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