Tar Heels do it again

GREENSBORO – Roy Williams hit his signature pose after Tyler Zeller hit his signature shot.

The coach crouched into his sumo, defensive stance urging North Carolina to bare down on defense after the forward finally found his hook shot to tie Clemson at 73 all.

Just more than 24 hours before, Williams struck that exact pose just before capturing the ACC Tournament win against Miami. And on Saturday in the semifinals, the pose held the same prophetic message as North Carolina rallied from another double-digit deficit to beat the Tigers 92-87 in overtime, advancing to the ACC Championship.

But the second comeback in two days for the Tar Heels wouldn’t have been possible without freshman Harrison Barnes. The forward scored 40 points on 12-of-17 shooting for his best offensive output all season.

Barnes posted 14 points in the five-minute overtime, including two 3-pointers with a hand in his face. He took part in a 16-0 UNC run that began with 3:54 in the second half and continued nearly three minutes into overtime, where the Tar Heels scored 19 points.

“I think we were just following our principles and in the right place at the right time,” forward John Henson said. “We boxed out, made them shoot tough shots and made them get one-shot possession. We took some good shots on the offensive end and that’s what catapulted us to win.”

Clemson coach Brad Brownell had the option of calling a timeout with 29 seconds left after Zeller’s game-tying bucket in regulation, but decided against it. Clemson’s leading scorer Demontez Stitt took the final shot that went begging as Leslie McDonald played solid defense on the senior guard.

Williams said had he been in Brownell’s shoes, he would have let his team play, too.

“Do you want to draw something up you think’s better? If we do that Roy’s going to change defenses,” Brownell said. “Coaches aren’t going let you run a play to win a game. You get the ball to your best player, give him space and let him make a shot.”

Stitt started exceptionally for the Tigers, going 4-for-7 from the field and scoring 10 points in the first half. He facilitated an offense that shot 55.6 percent from the floor in the half as well as a stifling defense.

UNC point guard Kendall Marshall had difficulty getting the Tar Heels into their set offense as Clemson employed soft pressure on the in-bounds every time down the court. Marshall, who plays with his head up and eyes always searching for the next pass, had to pay closer attention to his defender Andre Young before he reached midcourt.

“Part of it was Kendall not pushing it and we didn’t get the ball out quickly enough,” Williams said.”It’s hard to do that because that guy’s got to find him quickly as well. We felt like they were going to do that — they did that the last game. We’ve been faced with that, but they were more effective with it today than anybody else has been.”

Clemson’s defense forced eight UNC turnovers with the help of five steals by swiping low at the ball when UNC put the ball on the floor. The textbook style of defense forced John Henson into three first-half turnovers.

But where the Tar Heels excelled against Miami on Friday — the 3-point line — they struggled against Clemson. UNC went 2-for-6 from behind the arc while Clemson was 6-for-8. McDonald, who hit three 3-pointers on Friday, played only four first-half minutes after picking up three fouls.

He rebounded in the second half and hit a key 3-ball that extinguished Clemson’s final double-digit lead with 15:35 left in the game.

“In the second half few got more aggressive, our defense got better,” Williams said. “Harrison started making a bunch of shots and Leslie came in and made a big three.”

The Tar Heels turn their attention to Sunday at 1 p.m. when they face the winner of the Duke-Virginia Tech semifinal match. And for Williams, he doesn’t care which team it is.

“I think winning the ACC Championship, whether it’s over Duke or Virginia Tech or Slippery Rock, is going to mean a great deal to our team,” he said. “Everwho’s facing us tomorrow, I’m gonna want down in my soul to beat them and I don’t care who it is.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.