North Carolina figured to be too deep, too talented, too fresh-legged for a gallant N.C. State squad to handle in its fourth game in four days. That proved the case as the top-seed Tar Heels defeated the Wolfpack 89-80 to win their 16^th ACC title. But getting there certainly was fun.

Freshmen ruled the day. Brandan Wright, the lanky Tar Heel whose arms are so long his hook shots become lay-ins, finished with 16 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. UNC’s freshman backcourt of Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson contributed 29 points as all five starters scored in double figures for the Heels. On the other side, redshirt freshman forward Brandon Costner capped a remarkable weekend with 28 points. He finished with 90 in four games, a new record. In all, four of five members of the all-tournament team were freshmen.

But it was seniors who ultimately made the difference for North Carolina.

Pregame wisdom had the game staying close for a half, and the Heels led by just 34-32 when a marginal contributor for much of the year stepped to the fore to give them their first comfortable working margin.

Wes Miller, the walk-on from Charlotte who earned a scholarship after transferring from James Madison, had been going to the ACC Tournament since he was one year old and in his mother’s arms. The senior admitted last week his fondest memory was of the 1995 tournament and a riveting finals in which Wake Forest beat North Carolina by a point in overtime.

Miller, who averages 11 minutes and 2.5 points per game, got into the finals against 10^th-seed N.C. State late in the first half. He made the most of his chance, hitting a pair of long 3-pointers within a 35-second span, one from the right corner, then one from the left wing. His one-two punch gave UNC a 40-32 lead with 1:29 left in the first half. This from a player making only 31.1 percent on the year from long range. Winning the ACC title “means the world to me,” Miller said.

N.C. State trailed 42-34 at halftime, and fell behind 56-40 with 13:51 to go. Built to play a deliberate game, it seemed unlikely Sidney Lowe’s first Wolfpack squad could rally from such a deficit.

But observers have been underestimating N.C. State for much of the season, and certainly did not expect it to reach the finals for the 17^th time in school history, sixth against North Carolina. (The Heels are now 4-2 in such matchups, winning in  1968, 1975, 1997 and 2007. The Wolfpack won in 1959 and 1987).

 Faced with a daunting deficit, the patient Pack pecked away. Slowly, inexorably, they crept closer and closer until, with five minutes and three seconds left in the game, they closed the gap to 70-69 on a pullup jumper by Courtney Fells, one of four N.C. State players to finish in double figures.

That’s when the second senior stepped forward for the Heels.

Benched for an extended part of the game by coach Roy Williams, who won his first ACC title in his fourth year at Chapel Hill, Reyshawn Terry returned to the lineup and immediately reeled off eight consecutive points in 83 seconds. Terry hit a jumper, converted a 3-point player and, with teammates seemingly shying from taking a perimeter shot in the face of stiff N.C. State resistence, canned a 3-pointer with 3:31 left that gave UNC a 78-72 lead.

“He has such ability if he just stays focused and stays in the moment and not worry about what happened on the last play,” Williams said of the Winston-Salem product.

Typically, N.C. State refused to quit. But with point guard Engin Atsur’s sore hamstring so inhibiting he could barely rise to shoot a jumper, with the Tar Heels making free throw after free throw (23 of 24, third-best in an ACC title game), the Pack fell just short. “I told our guys, you can be hurt but don’t be disappointed,” said Lowe, just the seventh coach to take a team to the finals in his first year at an ACC school, “because there’s nothing to be disappointed about.”