20 minutes. That's as long as Virginia Tech needed to hold onto a lead to make the ACC Tournament semifinal.

With a 35-32 lead at the break, the Hokies simply couldn't keep North Carolina from scoring at will in the second half - despite the Heels' status as a team without much offense - and it was North Carolina emerging with the 81-

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In just their third game in more than a month, the Hokies couldn't play a clean game in two important ways: North Carolina managed 20 fastbreak points thanks in large part to 11 Virginia Tech turnovers, and the Heels notched 17 second-chance points on 15 offensive rebounds.

A UNC team hitting barely over 30% of its three-pointers on the season also hit 38.1% (8/21), with five of those makes coming in the second-half scoring explosion, and the scoring opened up, seemingly for the first time all year for UNC.

What might otherwise have been a career night for Hokies forward Justyn Mutts - 24 points on 10/16 shooting, plus eight rebounds and an assist - was marred by a 1/5 mark at the free-throw stripe. Tyrece Radford had a solid night for VT as well, pouring in 20 points. But nine points on 4/13 shooting for VT star forward Keve Aluma was not the efficiency needed to overcome a night when the Hokie defense faltered.

North Carolina players combined to hit eight three-pointers (tied for fourth-best of the season for the Heels), and forward Armando Bacot hit 7/9 shots from the field and 3/7 from the line to lead his team to the upset win.

With the loss, the Hokies will sweat out Selection Sunday just a bit, although Virginia Tech should still be comfortably included in the NCAA's tournament field.

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