ACC Roundup - UNC Tops NC State And Pitt Falls To Louisville

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PITTSBURGH, PA - JANUARY 11: Pittsburgh Panthers forward Cameron Corhen (2) reaches for the basketball during the first half of the college basketball game between the Louisville Cardinals and Pittsburgh Panthers on January 11, 2025, at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA. | Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

As Jalen Washington has his first great moments as a Tar Heel.

In Saturday’s ACC Actin, Louisville nipped Pitt, 82-78, Clemson clobbered Florida State 77-57, Syracuse took down BC 79-71, SMU crushed Georgia Tech 93-71, Stanford had little trouble with Virginia 88-65, UNC survived its non-rival NC State 63-61, Wake Forest got by Miami 88-78 and Virginia Tech slipped by Cal 71-68.

Let’s start with the non-rivals.

At least for a day, UNC solved its inside woes as Jalen Washington had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and three blocks, including one that locked up the win for the Tar Heels.

UNC had a nine-point lead late but NC State rallied and went up 59-58 with 2:28 left.

Washington got a dunk with :24 left to give UNC the 63-61 lead and then blocked a potentially tying shot by Jayden Taylor with :01 left on the clock.

It was, by far, his best game as a Tar Heel and UNC can draw a lot of hope from his play.

For the Tar Heels, it’s three wins in a row and five out of the last six. For State, it’s three losses out of the last four games.

Louisville and Pitt put on a good show too and Pitt arguably should have won. The Panthers played well and shot well but Louisville killed them on the offensive boards, and Jeff Capel said that was where they lost because the Cards had 22 second chance points.

It’s great news for Louisville as the Cards have now risen to second place in the ACC. Considering where they’ve been, that’s impressive.

You’ll remember that Zach Austin got hurt in Durham. Well, he played 38 minutes so he must be okay.

Florida State is supposed to be a program built on defense but they didn't do much in that department against Clemson as the Tigers shot 13-28 from deep.

FSU managed 4-16, so Clemson outscored them 39-12 in that department. Chase Hunter led the way with 25 points. Ian Schieffelin was off his feed again with just two points and six rebounds. Former Blue Devil Christian Reeves got two minutes off the bench with one block.

The Tigers did a great job on Jamir Watkins, holding him to just 11 points on 3-12/2-8 shooting.

Syracuse got back to .500 with a narrow win over Boston College. BC led for a good bit of the second half but a 13-2 run tipped it towards the Orange.

BC did something different this time, putting Chad Vennings (6-9/270) and Jayden Hastings (6-9/240) out on the court together in the second half. Why not? The offense was struggling. You have to roll the dice sometimes.

JJ Starling had 26 for Syracuse. Lucas Taylor added 15 and Jyare Davis tossed in 12. Chris Bell, who lost his starting spot recently, was 0-5 from the floor, hitting just three free throws.

Donald Hand had 20 for the Eagles while Venning put up 17.

SMU got back on track after losing to Duke and UNC with a beatdown of Georgia Tech. It started early and never let up. SMU was up 32-13 and it just never was competitive. Tech had 22 turnovers and was never in this game. Chuck Harris had 21 points while BJ Edwards had 19 for the Mustangs. Javian McCollum had 20 to pace the Yellow Jackets.

Baye Ndongo had just six points on 1-3 from the floor.

Virginia shot well from deep against Stanford, hitting 10-21, but it wasn’t enough as the Cavs lost by 23. Maxime Raynaud dominated with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Jaylen Blakes had 10 points, three assists and three steals.

For his part, Blakes’s former Duke teammate TJ Power played seven minutes and scored four points, all from the foul line.

Miami lost again - the ‘Canes have won just once since November 17th - no big surprise. But the ‘Canes were at least competitive. But Cameron Hildreth had perhaps the best game of his Wake Forest career with 31 points, hitting 11-16/6-8 and Hunter Sallis got 22.

Matthew Cleveland had 22 for Miami while former 5-star recruit JoJo Bethea, who has had what you could probably call a frustrating year, had 13.

Virginia Tech dominated most of the game - Cal’s missing its first 13 shots didn’t help - but a 26-5 run later got the Bears back into it. The Hokies hung on however and left Berkeley with the win.

Mylyjael Poteat and Brandon Rechsteiner both had 12. Jayden Schutt had a poor game, shooting 0-2 in 10 minutes and picking up three fouls.

There are no games Sunday. The next game is on Monday when BC visits Notre Dame.

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ACC Roundup - UNC Tops NC State And Pitt Falls To Louisville

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