North Carolina's Tyler Zeller, left, and Miami's Reggie Johnson battle for a rebound in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the...
(AP Photo/Bob Leverone)
North Carolina's Tyler Zeller, left, and Miami's Reggie Johnson battle for a rebound in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, March 11, 2011.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Kendall Marshall penetrated into the lane and found Tyler Zeller for a layup to beat the horn as No. 6 North Carolina rallied from 19 down in the second half to beat Miami 61-59 in Friday's quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Zeller finished with 13 points for the top-seeded Tar Heels (25-6), who escaped the upset with a frantic comeback in the final 8 minutes. North Carolina struggled with turnovers all day against Miami's zone defense and didn't get much going inside. The team rallied with a flurry of 3-point shots before Zeller gave the Tar Heels their only lead on the final play.
The ninth-seeded Hurricanes (19-14) staged their own comeback from 10 down in the final minute to force overtime and beat Virginia in Thursday's first round. But officials immediately ruled Zeller's basket beat the horn, denying Miami another last-second victory.
It was North Carolina's biggest comeback in a game in five years, dating to when the Tar Heels rallied from 20 down in the first half to beat Georgia Tech in 2006.
Harrison Barnes had 18 points and hit four of the Tar Heels' 10 3-pointers, seven coming in the second half. Leslie McDonald added 11 points and hit three 3s as part of a smaller lineup that finally got the Tar Heels going after a sluggish first 30 minutes.
The Tar Heels advanced to Saturday's semifinals to face the Boston College-Clemson winner.
North Carolina shot 56 percent and had just five turnovers following the break after committing 15 in the first half. The Hurricanes capitalized on those miscues all day, but the Tar Heels _ who had struggled with their outside shooting for much of February _ finally built some momentum with a series of four 3s in a 2-minute span to cut a 16-point deficit to 55-51 with 5:13 left.
Zeller tied the game on a hook shot in the lane with 45.3 seconds left, then Miami gave it back to the Tar Heels when Adrian Thomas couldn't handle a pass from Malcolm Grant and fumbled the ball out of bounds with 18.6 seconds remaining.
The Hurricanes had committed just four team fouls to that point, so they fouled twice to take North Carolina out of rhythm in the waning seconds. Finally, Marshall took an inbound pass with 5.6 seconds left and drove by Julian Gamble in the lane before sending a short pass over to Zeller on the other side of the block.
Zeller quickly put it in, sending the home-state crowd filled with plenty of light blue into a loud roar of delight.