ACC Tournament Championship Game 2013: North Carolina Advances, Will Meet Miami in Final
By Josh Sanchez
The North Carolina Tar Heels have punched their ticket to the ACC tournament title game with a win over the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a back-and-forth contest that went down to the wire, but the Tar Heels were able to hit the crucial free throws down the stretch.
It is the third-straight season that the Tar Heels have advanced to the tournament championship game.
The Tar Heels earned the victory on a total team effort, with four players — Dexter Strickland, Reggie Bullock, P.J. Hairston and James Michael McAdoo — scoring in double digits. With the loss, Maryland’s tournament hopes will now come down to the committee’s decision.
North Carolina will meet the Miami Hurricanes in tomorrow’s tournament final.
Miami earned their berth in the ACC tournament title game with a ten point win over the North Carolina State Wolfpack. It is the first ACC title game appearance for the Hurricanes, and they were led by guard Shane Larkin who’s leadership kept the No. 9 ranked team in the nation on the right track.
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“We’re a very hungry team, and we want more and more,” Larkin said. “We’re not satisfied with winning the regular season. We want the ACC championship, and then eventually we want to make the national championship game. We’re hungry, and we’re not going to settle for anything less.”
Miami is in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and they could likely clinch a spot with a win in the conference championship game thanks to the early departure from Duke. If the Hurricanes can add the conference tournament championship along with their regular season ACC title, then they have a very good case for being one of the top four teams in this year’s tourney.
Do you think Miami is deserving of a top seed with a win over North Carolina in tomorrow’s final?
The complete field of tournament participants will be announced on Selection Sunday just over twenty four hours from now.
Be sure to stay tuned to FanSided.com throughout championship week as we keep you up to date with the latest conference champions and teams that earn automatic bids into the 2013 NCAA tournament field.