UNC gets another date with Duke

UNC entered the week and knew that it took another shot on Duke to get a place in the NCAA field. Nothing else would get the tar heels from the bladder.

Mission fulfilled.

UNC won for the second time in two days and defeated the NCAA Bubble team Wake Forest 68: 59 to get to the ACC tournament on Friday. This gives the Tar Heels a third gap at the regular champions. Duke won both regular seasonal games with double-digit numbers when Carolina stumbled into a 1:11 record against Quad I opponent.

Despite her fights against the top teams, UNC ate against everyone else and kept the Tar -Heels in the bladder, but general consensus is that Carolina needs a significant victory to beat her ticket for the NCAAs.

You will get this opportunity on Friday.

“We believe that we are a tournament team,” said Seth Trimble, who scored 10 points against the Demon Deacons. “But we know if we will win the game tomorrow without a doubt. Without a doubt we are a tournament team. So we know what it is about. We know the pressure. We are here. “

Carolina had pressure each of the last two days because he knew that a loss would probably wipe out any hopes of tournaments. That was during the collision on Thursday with Wake, a game that was not for the faint of heart. There was physical game, an open foul on Wake and a technical game on the Tar Heels when the referees had difficulty keeping the order between two desperate teams. Wake had to come to Duke to get the chance to impress the selection committee as well as Carolina.

“It was mentioned every time what we had,” said Jae'yn Withers, who scored nine points and had an important three pointer in the route to give UNC the lead. “We know what's at stake. We have to fight. “

At the other end of the court, Wake players heard the same thing in their times.

“The message only did everything to win,” said Hunter Sallis, who achieved 25 for Wake Forest. “In the route we definitely showed that we wanted to do everything you needed to win.”

The result was a game that Withers said: “If it wasn't the most physical game that we played all year round, it was one of the most physical.”

Wake Forest went in double digits early. UNC fought back and led half and then preferred two digits at the beginning of the second half. It was Wake's turn to fight back, and then the game turned into a dog construction.

From the brand of 1:30 p.m. in the second half, the two teams were separated by a property for a 10 and a half minutes. Eight of the twelve lead changes in the game and seven of the 12 ties came during this back and forth route, which covered more than a quarter of the game.

Then playing with 2:58, and Unc Up One, RJ Davis was opened in the transition on the wing.

“You have managed a piece that you have run since Dean Smith,” said Wake coach Steve Forbes. “I don't mean that. It is only the Carolina species. He was opened for a three and he arrested it. So, she set up four. “

That was as close as Wake Forest. The heels withdrew and played a Duke team, which will probably be without ACC player of the year, Cooper Flag, who scolded his ankle in the early game.

In the meantime, Wake Forest will go home and wait for Sunday when the news will probably be official -the Demon -Deacons will miss the NCAA tournament for the eighth year in a row.

“How do you get to the tournament?” Asked Forbes, who does not have to bring the Deacs to dance as a coach. “You have to win. You have to win all of this quad 1, quad 2s. “

And sometimes you have to win a fight just to have the opportunity.