ACC Roundup - Two Near Upsets As The Regular Season Winds Down

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LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH 01: Louisville Cardinals Head Coach Pat Kelsey huddles with his team during the college basketball game between the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Louisville Cardinals on March 1, 2025, at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. | Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

But Louisville and Wake Forest survive

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Clemson got by a tough Virginia 71-58, Louisville survived Pitt 79-68, UNC smacked Miami around 92-73, Virginia Tech crushed NC State 87-62, Stanford kicked SMU 73-68, Wake Forest slipped by 74-71 and Cal knocked off Boston College 82-71.

Virginia gave Clemson a much tougher game than most people probably expected, leading at halftime 32-27.

Clemson outscored Virginia 44-26 in the second half which obviously settled the deal.

The Tigers are normally an outstanding three point team but had to win this one inside since they only hit 1-10 outside. Ian Schieffelin (8-11) and Viktor Lakhin (5-11) scored 21 and 14 respectively and also pulled down 13 and eight rebounds respectively.

Jaeden Zackery also had 12. Chase Hunter had an off-game with just six points.

Isaac McKneely had 16 for Virginia and Andrew Rohde had 12 points and five assists for Virginia.

Pitt gave Louisville a real scare for much of the game before the Cardinals finally put them away late.

Chucky Hepburn had a spectacular game with 37 points. Terrence Edwards had 23 points but no one else got to double figures for Louisville.

Jaland Lowe led Pitt with 16 as four out of five starters finished in double figures. With the loss, Pitt falls to 16-13 in what has become a disappointing season.

Miami led 3-0 and then trailed for the rest of the game. The Hurricanes have just had a miserable season and nothing changed in Chapel Hill.

Ven-Allen Lubin had a tremendous game for the Tar Heels, hitting 9-10 for 19 points and grabbing five rebounds. Jae’Lyn Withers had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Drake Powell had 16 points while RJ Davis finished with 13. Elliot Cadeau finished with nine points and four assists, but also three turnovers.

On the bright side for Miami, Matthew Cleveland played 34 minutes and scored 25 points. On the downside, there are only two games left for the ‘Canes, a trip to Georgia Tech Tuesday and then hosting NC State on Saturday.

That’s the end for the ‘Canes: they won’t qualify for the ACC Tournament.

UNC plays at Virginia Tech on Tuesday before closing out the regular season with Duke on Saturday.

Speaking of the Hokies, they needed overtime to beat Syracuse but managed, winning 101-95.

Syracuse was up 69-56 with 8:45 left before the Hokies ripped off a 26-9 run. Former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt went to the line with Virginia Tech up 81-79 and split his free throws with :04 left and then Jaquan Carlos hit a three to put it on OT.

The Hokies took overtime, 19-13 and waltzed away with the win.

Schutt, who was pretty sick for awhile in February, racked up 20 here, hitting 6-7/3-4.

On the bright side for both teams, they’ll be in the ACC Tournament, so that’s a plus.

Baye Ndongo continued his recent roll with 29 points and 17 rebounds against NC State as the Pack failed offensively again, shooting 33.3 percent from behind the line and 37.7 percent overall.

We’re not sure why Michael O’Connell’s game has fallen off a cliff lately but it really has. And when Ben Middlebrooks is your greatest offensive threat, something has seriously gone wrong. Like Miami, State may be happy just to see this season end, which it will Saturday, after a Tuesday game against Pitt. The closing opponent?

Miami, in what may become one of the worst ACC games in recent history. It’s quite a fall from last year’s miracle run to the Final Four and Miami is just two years removed from their own appearance.

Former Blue Devil Jaylen Blakes didn’t have a big game for Stanford but as it turns out it was unnecessary. He picked up four fouls in 16 minutes and finished with two points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals and two turnovers.

Big man Maxime Raynaud had 26 points but just four rebounds, way below his normal standards.

Still didn't matter.

Stanford built a solid lead in the middle of the game, up 10 points in the first half. SMU rallied to tie the game 64-64 but the Cardinal pulled away again in the last three minutes.

Raynaud hit a big follow up dunk with 8.7 left to put it out of reach.

In SMU’s first ACC season, the Mustangs are in fourth place and Stanford is in seventh as of now. For both teams, that’s a solid debut season.

Wake Forest has really struggled down the stretch, losing three of their last five and two of those losses were to NC State and Virginia, and those losses really hurt.

It may be too late, but Notre Dame was a game the Deacs could not afford to lose.

The Irish didn’t make it easy though. Wake Forest had to come back to win this one and also had to overcome a big game by Markus Burton, who finished with 29. However, he also had six turnovers.

Good thing Wake Forest hit their free throws, by which we mean all of them: the Demon Deacons shot 19-19 from the free throw line and built a three-point lead with :12 seconds to play. Notre Dame had three shots to tie the game but couldn’t pull it off. Still, they showed a lot of heart and are without two starters in Matt Allocco and Braeden Shrewsberry.

Wake’s Cameron Hildreth had 28 and Hunter Sallis had 17.

Next up for Wake Forest is a Monday trip to Cameron for a rematch with Duke. The Blue Devils won Round 1 in Winston-Salem, but by just 63-56 and there’s obviously no guarantee that Maliq Brown and Tyrese Proctor will be available.

Finally, no great surprise to see Cal take out Boston College, but at least BC made a game out of it. The Eagles were down just 61-60 with around 7:00 to play before the Bears ripped off a 12-0 run that doomed Boston College.

Donald Hand had a poor first half but made up for it in the second, scoring all 19 of his points after halftime.

Cal had a balanced performance from the starters: Mady Sissoko had 21 points and 15 rebounds, Jovan Blacksher had 18, Andrej Stojakovic 15 and Jeremiah Wilkinson 14.

With BC falling to 12-17, speculation about Earl Grant’s future will increase. He has done a lot to change the culture there but the bottom line is the bottom line.

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ACC Roundup - Two Near Upsets As The Regular Season Winds Down

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