PHILADELPHIA — The ACC will have two representatives in the Final Four — and one in the national championship game on April 4 — thanks to the league going 4-0 in Sweet 16 games on Friday night.
North Carolina and Notre Dame will meet in the East Regional final here on Sunday, while Syracuse and Virginia will close out the Midwest final on Sunday in Chicago.
Virginia will take on Syracuse in the first game at 6:09 p.m. ET, followed by North Carolina playing Notre Dame at 8:49 p.m.
The four teams from one conference in the Final Four ties a record set by the Big East in 2009.
“It definitely doesn’t surprise me based on the quality of play in our league this year,” said North Carolina senior point guard Marcus Paige, who went for 21 points and 6 assists while going 6-for-9 from deep as the No. 1 Tar Heels beat No. 5. Indiana, 101-86, in the second game of the night at Wells Fargo Center. “It just shows that we have the best conference this year.”
Paige passed Michael Jordan on the all-time North Carolina scoring list.
Said North Carolina coach Roy Williams: “I felt all year long that our league was outstanding. I feel like our league is showing the kind of depth and the strength of the teams the way they’re playing right now.”
In a battle of bluebloods in the City of Brotherly Love, Brice Johnson went for 20 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, Kennedy Meeks had 15 points and 9 rebounds and Justin Jackson went for 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in Carolina’s win.
“If they play like that, they’ll be very, very hard to beat,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “And I hope they do because they deserve it.”
North Carolina (31-6) and Notre Dame (24-11) split two games this season, but the Tar Heels destroyed the Irish, 78-47, in the ACC Tournament semifinals on March 11 en route to the championship.
In Chicago, No. 1 Virginia took care of No. 4 Iowa State, 84-71, while No. 10 Syracuse got a go-ahead layup from Michael Gbinije with 22 seconds left to help the Orange edge No. 11 Gonzaga, 63-60.
Virginia won the only meeting between the two teams this year.
The first game in Philadelphia was much closer than the second, with the No. 6 Irish closing the game on an 8-0 run to knock out No. 7 Wisconsin, 61-56.
Notre Dame has junior guard Demetrius Jackson to thank for its second straight Elite Eight appearance. Jackson shot just 6-for-18 for 16 points, but made two huge steals in the games final seconds and hit a pair of foul shots in the final seconds to ice the victory.
“It feels great,” Jackson said. “Feels amazing to be going back. We just did a great job sticking with it. We did a great job giving ourselves a chance to win. We had a lot of mistakes in the game but we kept fighting. We took our punches and we just kind of got back up, kept fighting, kept believing, kept communicating and we just made it happen.”
With Wisconsin up 56-53 thanks to a Vitto Brown 3-pointer, Jackson scored four straight points to put the Irish up 57-56. After a driving bucket made it 56-55, he stole the ball when Nigel Hayes lost control dribbling the ball near the Notre Dame basket. With 14.4 seconds left, Jackson alertly darted in for a layup to cut the lead put the Irish up by one.
Then with Bronson Koenig dribbling up court on Wisconsin’s final possession, Jackson looked like he was going to give a foul near the top of the circle but instead knocked the ball loose for a steal with 3 seconds remaining. V.J. Beacham and Jackson went 4-for-4 from the line in the final 6.8 seconds to ice the win.
“Just really special,” Jackson said. “And I guess that kind of sums up madness, just flying around, doing whatever it takes to win the game. And I’m so thankful to be able to go back, continue to put the jersey on, continue to play and represent our university and just have fun playing with my brothers and being coached by our coaches and just enjoying the ride.”
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