NC State stuns UNC to claim first ACC Tournament title since 1987, earn NCAA bid

By Brian Murphy, WRAL

North Carolina State Wolfpack	84
4North Carolina Tar Heels	76
Final

Washington — Why not us indeed.

Tenth-seeded NC State completed its stunning five-game run through the ACC Tournament on Saturday night, defeating top-seeded North Carolina 84-76 in Washington, D.C.

It is the Wolfpack's first ACC Tournament title since 1987 — and it sends NC State to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.

"We've been getting crushed – when I say we, NC State – by not delivering any championship in 37 years," NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. "Well, they can't say that now because we got one."

It all seemed inconceivable Tuesday when NC State opened its tournament. But, perhaps, not to the Wolfpack, who asked "Why not us?" before the event began.

"Like I said from the jump, why not us?" NC State's DJ Horne said after the game on ESPN. "Just a week ago it was looking like our season was about to be over, and here we are now, man, on top of the world."

NC State knocked off the top three seeds — No. 2 Duke on Thursday, No. 3 Virginia in overtime on Friday and No. 1 UNC on Saturday night — in its improbable run that included a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime against Virginia.

Each opponent NC State beat in the tournament, including Louisville and Syracuse in the first two rounds, has won at least one national title since 2003.

"We will look back one day, and it may even be tomorrow, and just be in awe at the teams that we beat," Keatts said. "They're great programs, great coaches who have done a really good job."

The Wolfpack entered the tournament having lost four straight games and seven of their last nine games. Keatts' job status was more of a discussion point than the Wolfpack making a run. NC State trailed at halftime to last-place Louisville in its first game.

But NC State got stronger as the tournament wore on, knowing it had no margin for error if it wanted to reach the NCAA Tournament.

"We were really desperate," guard DJ Horne said. "You kind of felt that energy with just, like, every timeout we had coming back to the huddle. Everybody was locked in, on their P's and Q's and everything, and that's what you need if you're going to win championships like this.

"There's no better time to be playing your best basketball than March, and I'm just glad that we figured it out now."

NC State became the first double-digit seed to win the ACC Tournament and the first team in league history to win five games in the event.

North Carolina coach Hubert Davis downplayed the impact of playing five games in five days, especially with the an ACC title on the line.

"Too much is made out of five games in five days," Davis said. "You have a chance to play in this tournament, you have a chance to win a championship. Us growing up, we played three games in one day.

"Getting an opportunity to play at this level in this tournament and for a championship, it doesn't matter how many overtimes, how many games you play in a row. We knew that they would play with great energy, and they did from the start and throughout the entire game."

Horne, who missed the first game of the tournament with a hip injury, paced NC State with 29 points before fouling out. He made 9-of-15 attempts from the field and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line.

Center DJ Burns added 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field, including his first 3-pointer of the season, to go along with seven assists for the Wolfpack, which shot 54.9 percent from the field.

"Allowing a team, any team, to shoot 55 percent for a game, that's just not going to work," Davis said. "It's a credit that we stayed in the game. From a defensive standpoint, we weren't able to guard them one-on-one, whether it was on the post, isolations out on the wing. Didn't play the type of defense that you have to have in order to win games like this."

Burns was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Horne and guard Michael O'Connell were also named to the five-player all-tournament first-team.

The ACC Tournament championship is a win and a windfall for Keatts. It triggered a two-year extension in his contract, a $400,000 raise, a $100,000 bonus and, at least, $25,000 for participating in the NCAA Tournament's Round of 64.

For NC State, a program with a proud basketball history, this ACC title, after such a long wait, is special. It is the 11th ACC Tournament title for NC State, which has defeated UNC in the title game three times (1959, 1987 and 2024).

"When you think about NC State, the couple things that really stand out to you is the '74 [national] championship and the '83 [national] championship, and if we could make any of those guys proud, and hopefully they are, by what we did here in the ACC, that's a great thing," Keatts said.

"For all of the players that came before us that were so close to winning a championship, it's not just our championship, it's everybody's championship. I'm proud, man. I'm emotional. I'm proud. I'm excited," he said.

North Carolina, which is still likely to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, got 30 points from RJ Davis and 18 from Armando Bacot. Both Davis and Bacot earned first-team all-tournament honors.

The Tar Heels shot just 7-of-28 from 3-point range with starters Cormac Ryan (1-of-5) and Harrison Ingram (3-of-9) struggling from deep.

UNC (27-7) was seeking its 19th ACC Tournament championship, but its first since 2016.

"We didn't play our best basketball today," said RJ Davis, the ACC's Player of the Year. "I know that was one of our goals going into the season, but we just came up short. Coach Davis always talks about our response and how we're going to respond when we get knocked down, so going into March Madness, we're going to have to prepare, come together as a group and fix the mistakes that we made."