Virginia: 2017-18 Atlantic Coast Men's Basketball Champions

NEW YORK -- Kyle Guy, Devon Hall and No. 1 Virginia completed one of the most successful seasons in the storied history of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, beating No. 12 North Carolina 71-63 in the tournament championship game Saturday night to finish 20-1 against league competition.

The top-seeded Cavaliers (31-2) set a school record for victories and won the ACC Tournament for the second time in five seasons under coach Tony Bennett, and third time overall. With plenty of their fans packing Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Cavaliers beat sixth-seeded North Carolina (25-10) for the second time this season and snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Tar Heels in ACC Tournament play.

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Guy, the tournament MVP, scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half and Hall added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. Ty Jerome had 12 points, six assists and six rebounds for Virginia, which will certainly enter the NCAA Tournament as the top overall seed.

Not bad for a bunch that started the season unranked and was picked to finish sixth in the ACC. With no one-and-dones and no lock NBA lottery picks, the Cavaliers dominated the ACC with efficiency and tenacity. They went 17-1 in the regular season, the one loss by one point in overtime, and finished in first by four games.

"This is one of the most connected groups I've ever coached," Bennett said.

Virginia held the Tar Heels scoreless for five minutes and took a 58-49 lead on De'Andre Hunter's baseline fadeaway with 3:32 left. North Carolina snapped the drought with a 3-pointer by Luke Maye, who scored 20, but Jerome nailed a 3 out of a timeout to restore the nine-point lead.

UNC, playing in its record 35th ACC championship game, never got closer than five again as Virginia closed it out from the free-throw line. The Tar Heels played about as well as any team has this season against the best defensive team in the country, shooting 40 percent and committing only nine turnovers. In the regular season, the Tar Heels managed only 49 points and 29 percent shooting, while committing 19 turnovers in a loss at Virginia.

The Cavaliers played defense with their offense, turning the ball over just four times and allowing the fast-paced Tar Heels just two fast-break points.

BIG PICTURE

North Carolina: UNC won three games in four days in Brooklyn and might have played its way into a high enough seed -- probably a No. 2 -- to open the NCAAs in Charlotte. The Tar Heels are 33-1 in NCCA games played in their home state.


Virginia: In nine seasons in Charlottesville, Bennett has built one of the most successful programs in the country on a foundation of slow-paced but precise offense and sound and suffocating defense. When he climbed the ladder to cut down the last piece of string holding up the nets at Barclays, Virginia fans filled the arena with chants of "To-ny! To-ny!"

BYE BROOKLYN

The ACC Tournament heads back to North Carolina after a two-year stint in New York City, but expect it to be back sooner rather than later. Maybe even as soon as 2022, when the arena is free and the ACC has no plans booked.

UP NEXT

Both teams will head home and find out their NCAA Tournament destinations.

North Carolina: 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Champions

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- It's OK, Carolina, you can open your eyes.

An unwatchable game turned into a beautiful night for the Tar Heels, who turned a free-throw contest into a championship they've been waiting an entire year to celebrate.

Justin Jackson delivered the go-ahead 3-point play with 1:40 left Monday and North Carolina pulled away for a 71-65 win over Gonzaga that washed away a year's worth of heartache.

It was, in North Carolina's words, a redemption tour -- filled with extra time on the practice court and the weight room, all fueled by a devastating loss in last year's title game on Kris Jenkins' 3-point dagger at the buzzer for Villanova.

"I wanted to see this confetti fall on us and we're the winners," said Carolina's Joel Berry II, who led the Heels with 22 points. "We came out here and we competed. It came down to the last second, but we're national champs now."

Berry, along with most of Roy Williams' players, returned for another run. To say everything went right for them at this Final Four would not be the truth.

The Tar Heels (33-7) followed a terrible shooting night in the semifinal with an equally ice-cold performance in the final -- going 4 for 27 from 3-point land and 26 for 73 overall.

Gonzaga, helped by 8 straight points from Nigel Williams-Goss, took a 2-point lead with 1:52 left, but the next possession was the game-changer.

Jackson took a zinger of a pass under the basket from Theo Pinson and converted the shot, then the ensuing free throw to take the lead for good. Moments later, Williams-Goss twisted his right ankle and could not elevate for a jumper that would've given the Bulldogs the lead.

Isaiah Hicks made a basket to push the lead to 3, then Kennedy Meeks, in foul trouble all night, blocked Williams-Goss' shot and Jackson got a slam on the other end to put some icing on title No. 6 for the Tar Heels. Williams got his third title, putting him one ahead of his mentor, Dean Smith, and now behind only John Wooden, Adolph Rupp and Mike Krzyzewski.

"I think of Coach Smith, there's no question," Williams said. "I don't think I should be mentioned in the same sentence with him. But we got three because I've got these guys with me and that's all I care about right now -- my guys."

Berry recovered from ankle injuries to lead the Tar Heels, but needed 19 shots for his 22 points. Jackson had 16 on a 6-for-19 night and, overall, the Tar Heels actually shot a percentage point worse than they did in Saturday night's win over Oregon.


Thank goodness for free throws. They went 15 for 26 from the line and, in many corners, this game will be remembered for these three men: Michael Stephens, Verne Harris and Mike Eades, the referees who called 27 fouls in the second half, completely busted up the flow of the game and sent Meeks, Gonzaga's 7-footers Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins and a host of others to the bench in foul trouble.

The most bizarre sequence: With 8:02 left, Berry got called for a foul for (maybe) making contact with Karnowski and stripping the ball from the big man's hands. But as Karnowski was flailing after the ball, he grabbed Berry around the neck and, after a long delay, got called for a flagrant foul of his own.

That resulted in four straight free throws, a 52-all tie and booing from every corner of the massive Phoenix University Stadium.

North Carolina Tar Heels: 2015-16 ACC Men's Basketball Champions

WASHINGTON -- Thanks to the sort of defensive dominance coach Roy Williams has been seeking, North Carolina's longer-than-usual wait for its latest ACC tournament championship is over.

Now the Tar Heels can turn their focus to returning to their customary results in the NCAAs too.

No. 7 North Carolina held No. 4 Virginia without a field goal for more than 8 minutes in the second half to break open a back-and-forth Atlantic Coast Conference final, and tournament MVP Joel Berry II scored 19 points Saturday night, giving the Tar Heels a 61-57 victory for their first league title since 2008.

Since then, Williams had led the Tar Heels to four ACC finals -- in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 -- and lost each one. Even Virginia owned a more recent ACC trophy, from 2014.

Marcus Paige added 13 points to help North Carolina (28-6) win its 18th league championship.

Malcolm Brogdon led Virginia (26-7) with 15 points, but the conference player of the year was limited to 6 of 22 on field-goal attempts, 2 of 9 on 3s. In all, Carolina held the Cavs to 37 percent shooting.

Now comes the NCAA tournament and an all-but-certain No. 1 seeding that often feels like a birthright for the kids who wear Carolina blue. UNC hasn't been to the Final Four since winning its second national title under Williams in 2009 -- which would not seem all that long ago for most schools but feels like a lifetime to the folks from Chapel Hill.

Virginia would have been a No. 1 with a victory Saturday, it seems clear, but now who knows where the Cavaliers will end up when the brackets come out Sunday?

Paige only scored four in the first half but he took over at the beginning of the second for UNC, continuing the resurgence he began in Friday's semifinal. So much for his supposed slump. The lithe guard scored nine of 10 points for the Tar Heels in one stretch, including a steal and end-to-end drive for a layup, a jumper as he curled around a screen and a pull-up floater.

Then Berry got going on offense, while the entire Tar Heels squad displayed the sort of defensive toughness and will that Williams has been begging to see consistently.

After Anthony Gill put Virginia ahead 44-40 with a little under 10 minutes left in regulation, the Cavaliers missed their next 12 shots, part of a larger 2-for-20 rut. That allowed UNC to go on a 15-2 run capped by Brice Johnson's putback layup for a 55-46 lead with under 2 minutes to go -- the largest margin for either team.

Virginia would cut it to two in the closing moments, but UNC held on.

It was a similar defensive shutdown to the one North Carolina used to fuel a 24-point run that put away Notre Dame in the semifinals Friday.

These were the top two seeds in the conference tourney -- UNC finished atop the standings, UVA was No. 2 -- and both teams are capable of playing shutdown defense.

Virginia, best known for that aspect of its game, ranks second nationally in opponents' scoring average at a hair under 60 points, while UNC only allowed one foe to shoot better than 50 percent all season and held semifinal opponent Notre Dame scoreless for 9 1/2 minutes.

So not surprisingly, they were quite good at forcing the other into problems on offense right from the outset Saturday.

North Carolina turned the ball over eight times in the first 12 1/2 minutes. Virginia missed its first four shots and started 4 for 13 on field-goal attempts.

All in all, it was evenly matched, high-level basketball. For a half-plus, anyway.

The teams were tied at 28 at halftime, and were each other's equal in various other ways to that point. Each had 14 rebounds. Each had 16 points in the paint. Each held the other under 30 percent on 3-point tries.

Very clean, too: Only six combined fouls were whistled in the opening half, providing the sort of continuity that's a rarity these days in college basketball.

BEEN A WHILE

The previous four ACC titles had been won by a school from outside of the North Carolina center of power: FSU in 2012, Miami in 2013, Virginia in 2014, Notre Dame in 2015. That drought was the longest for that state in league history.

TIP-INS

North Carolina: Now only one behind Duke's ACC record of 19 titles. ... This was the Tar Heels' 34th appearance in an ACC final, most in conference history. ... Over the past 13 years, UNC has appeared in seven ACC finals -- against seven different schools.

Virginia: This was the Cavaliers' eighth ACC final; they beat UNC in 1976 and Duke in 2014. ... Beat North Carolina 79-74 on Feb. 27.

UP NEXT

North Carolina: NCAA tournament.

Virginia: NCAA tournament.

Oregon: 2015 Rose Bowl Champions

PASADENA, Calif. -- Touchdown. Turnover. Touchdown. Turnover. Touchdown.

And on it went for Oregon.

Marcus Mariota and the Ducks are built for speed, and in a flash they turned the first College Football Playoff semifinal game into a rout.

The Ducks dusted Florida State 59-20 on Thursday, and now it's on to Texas to try to win their first national championship.

"It's incredible. I'm so proud of these guys right here," Mariota said. "We've got one more to take care of."

The second-seeded Ducks (13-1) scored six straight times they touched the ball in the second half, with five of the touchdowns covering at least 21 yards and the last four coming after Florida State turnovers.

In a span of 12:54 on the game clock, the score went from 25-20 to 59-20.

"A lot of fun," Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said of the Ducks' run, "but at the same time, these guys were able to retain a tremendous focus."

In the matchup of Heisman Trophy winners, Jameis Winston matched Mariota's numbers, but the Seminoles were no match for the Ducks in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual. The Pac-12 champions will play Allstate Sugar Bowl winner Ohio State on Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas, for the national title. The Buckeyes beat Alabama on Thursday night, 42-35.

Third-seeded Florida State's winning streak ends at 29. In Winston's first loss as a college starter, and maybe his last game in college, he threw for 348 yards and turned the ball over twice.

"I think what he did as a competitor and what he does with his teammates, he's one of the great players in not only college football, but college football history to me," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "It was a tough day out there."

Mariota was mostly brilliant again. Directing the Ducks' warp-speed, hurry-up offense -- Oregon averaged 20.2 seconds per play, the fastest Florida State has faced this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information -- the junior passed for 338 yards and two touchdowns. When he sprinted for a 23-yard touchdown with 13:56 left in the fourth quarter, it made the score 52-20 and made the Ducks the first team to reach 50 points in Rose Bowl history. This was game No. 101.

"The longer you go, the stronger you get," said Ducks safety Erick Dargan, who forced a fumble and intercepted a pass. "We went longer and we stayed stronger. Everyone kept demanding more out of each other."

The Ducks' fans spent much of the final quarter mockingly doing the Seminoles' chant and tomahawk chop. After it was over, the players sported T-shirts that read "WON NOT DONE."

The first playoff game at college football's highest level, the type of postseason game fans have longed for, looked like it would be a classic for about two and a half quarters.

Under a cloudless sky, on a chilly day in Pasadena, the Rose Bowl featured the third matchup of Heisman Trophy winners and a couple of quarterbacks who could be vying to be the first overall pick in April's NFL draft.

On the same field where Florida State erased an 18-point deficit against Auburn to win the national title last year, the Seminoles trailed at halftime for the sixth time this season.

And then the hole got deeper.

Seminoles freshman Dalvin Cook was stripped byDerrick Malone Jr. with Florida State in Oregon territory. The Ducks quickly flipped the field, andRoyce Freeman scored his second touchdown of the day from 3 yards out to make it 25-13.

Helfrich had called the Seminoles "unflappable" during the week leading up to the Rose Bowl -- and they showed it on the next drive.

Winston threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to freshman Travis Rudolph to make it 25-20 Oregon with 8:07 left in the third.

Then the Ducks took off.

Mariota zipped a pass to Darren Carrington for a 56-yard touchdown pass.

Then another fumble by Cook, and the wave of big plays and points the Ducks do better than any other team in the country started rumbling.

Mariota hit Carrington for a 30-yard touchdown, and the Rose Bowl, filled mostly with green and yellow, was rumbling, too.

With the sun just about set behind the San Gabriel mountains, the Ducks put the Noles away.

On fourth-and-5 in Oregon territory, Winston had lots of time but couldn't find a receiver. He was flushed from the pocket, and as he loaded to throw, his foot slipped and the ball popped out of his hands.

"It kind of looked like he slipped on a banana, like in cartoons," Oregon linebacker Torrodney Prevot said.

The fumble bounced into Tony Washington's arms, and the defensive end went 58 yards for a score.

"It was just a crazy play," Winston said.

The wave had washed over Florida State.

Florida State had not lost since Nov. 24, 2012, to Florida. Winston had never lost a college start in 26 tries.

Turnovers were a problem all season for the Seminoles, who came into the game 84th in the nation in turnover margin (minus-3), and in the playoff, that was ultimately what doomed them.

"We beat ourselves," Winston said. "We were never stopped at all."

Winston, whose two years at Florida State have been filled with spectacular play on the field and controversy off, still has two years of eligibility left.

Mariota and the Ducks are moving on, with a chance to add the biggest prize of all -- the only significant one missing -- to their trophy case.

Every Breaking Wave

Every breaking wave on the shore
Tells the next one "there'll be one more"
Every gambler knows that to lose
Is what you're really there for

Summer I was fearless
Now I speak into an answerphone
Like every fallen leaf on the breeze
Winter wouldn't leave it alone, alone

If you go
If you go your way and I go mine
Are we so
Are we so helpless against the tide?
Baby, every dog on the street
Knows that we're in love with defeat
Are we ready to be swept off our feet
And stop chasing every breaking wave?

Every sailor knows that the sea
Is a friend made enemy
Every shipwrecked soul knows what it is
To live without intimacy

I thought I heard the captain's voice
But it's hard to listen while you preach
Like every broken wave on the shore
This is as far as I could reach

If you go
If you go your way and I go mine
Are we so
Are we so helpless against the tide?
Baby, every dog on the street
Knows that we're in love with defeat
Are we ready to be swept off our feet
And stop chasing every breaking wave?

The sea knows where all the rocks
Are drowning is an ocean
You know where my heart is
The same place that yours has been
We know that we fear the wind
And it's all we have before we begin
Before we begin

If you go
If you go your way and I go mine
Are we so
Are we so helpless against the tide?
Baby, every dog on the street
Knows that we're in love with defeat
Are we ready to be swept off our feet
And stop chasing every breaking wave?