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ACC Thursday: Georgia Tech 62, North Carolina 58

12:44 a.m. -- It's been a long day, but there's always time to transcribe one last interview.

North Carolina point guard Larry Drew II was far and away the most scrutinized player on a scrutinized team this season. Don't think he doesn't know it.

Q: Larry, as tough as this season’s been, do you want to play in the NIT?

A: “Of course I do. I try to play every game I can. ... Every time we came back in the locker room after a loss, we’d have our heads down but we’d know we had another chance to go back out there and make a stand for ourselves. We came in this (ACC) tournament with that mindset. Loss after loss after loss after loss, there’s going to come a point where you can’t play no more. We didn’t want that to happen here.”

On why this team struggled so much:

“It’s not one thing. It’s obviously a combination of things. And I can’t put my finger on it, the reason why we keep losing. …It’s just so frustrating because we showed flashes of what we could be, of how good a team we could be. It seems like we’ll play that way for a while, and then we’ll just stop. Trying to find that consistency with this team has been a major problem all year.”

“Our coach doesn’t like to hear it when people say that we’re young. But we only have three seniors on the team, so as far as experience goes, we’re not as experienced as other teams. We’re still going to learn, still going to get better.”

Q: What’s missing in those situations in the last couple minutes of games when you need to get a bucket but can’t?

A: “If I had to say something, I’d probably say in certain situations, coach will call a set play, and then guys are so caught up in carrying the play out, they’re not really letting their basketball instincts take over. You know what I’m saying? Teams know what we’re doing. We can run the same play over and over and over again, and they’ve scouted it. They want to take that stuff away, but we still try to force the issue sometimes instead of taking what the defense gives you. I think we’re so caught up in trying to (run the play), it’s like we’re being kind of robotic out there.”

Q: Do you plan to be back next year?

A: “Yeah, man. It’s been a hard year for everybody. I don’t see why everybody’s looking at me. I’m not going to be the one leaving and stuff. It’s been a hard year for everybody. We’ve just got to work it out as a team, fight through it together. ... I can’t put into words how tough it’s been for me this year. But I’m not a quitter. I’m still going to keep trying.”

On putting the season behind him and looking forward to next year ...

“I guess that's one way to approach it. I know with me it’s just going to sit there. It’s just going to feel like a missed opportunity, so to speak. This whole year, at the end of everything, if we’re not everything I feel we should be, then I look at it as a missed opportunity. But, at the same time, there’s also an opportunity to get better.”

Q: Why was consistency such an issue this year? Why was it so hard to find?

A: “I don’t know. You can ask any one of the players, any coach on the staff, and they won’t know, either. Because, it’s just, I wish I had the answer to that question.”

9:06 p.m. -- It's over. Derrick Favors finishes with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks, and Gani Lawal adds 12 points as Georgia Tech beats North Carolina 62-58. Heels' 7-footer Tyler Zeller scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Carolina. Greensboro's own Will Graves had just 6 points on 2-for-12 shooting in his hometown. Georgia Tech plays second-seeded Maryland tomorrow. Carolina finishes 16-16 and waits -- hopefully -- for the NIT to call.

8:57 p.m. -- Marcus Ginyard hits one-and-one to cut Georgia Tech's lead to 61-58 with 47.6 seconds left. Greensboro's own Will Graves, meanwhile, can't buy a bucket. His 3-pointer went in-and-out last possesion, and he's just 2-for-11 from the floor. Coming out of a timeout a few minutes ago. Graves set up on defense in front of our seats at press table and yelled to our own Ed Hardin: "I can't hit anything out here. I'm shooting it like you!"

8:33 p.m. -- Carolina's John Henson with a monstrous blocked shot on Moe Miller in transition. Worse for Miller, the ball hits him on its way out of bounds. But Heels have empty trip when Graves misses on drive to basket (he's 1-for-8 from floor), and Tech's Zack Peacock scores and draws a foul on Henson for three-point play and 52-50 Yellow Jackets lead.

8:25 p.m. -- Georgia Tech freshman forward Derrick Favors completes a three-point play to tie it at 49. Favors has 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting from the floor and 4-for-5 from the foul line. Truth be told, this is the fourth time I've seen him live this season (at Chapel Hill, at Duke, at Wake) and the first time I've noticed him. He was invisible in those games. But not tonight.

8:21 p.m. -- That 10-point Carolina halftime lead? Vaporized in the first 1:15 of second half when Georgia Tech opens on a 7-0 run. It's back-and-forth since then, and Carolina clings to a 45-43 lead with 13:14 left.

7:51 p.m. -- Tyler Zeller hits a pair of free throws and has a team-high nine points at halftime as North Carolina leads 34-24 at the break. Georgia Tech failed to score on its last possession, as guard Moe Miller was called for an offensive foul on a drive to the basket.

7:47 p.m. -- Greensboro's own Will Graves, a junior for North Carolina and former News & Record high school player of the year at Dudley, hits a 3-pointer with 2:31 left in first half for his first points in the Greensboro Coliseum. He missed his first four shots, and he really looks relieved.

7:44 p.m. -- Tar Heels' Tyler Zeller (7 points) and Deon Thompson (6) have more points inside than Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors (8) and Gani Lawal (3). Carolina leads 28-15 with 3:58 left in first half.

7:34 p.m. -- Carolina scores eight straight points after TV timeout. Heels take a 20-13 lead with 7:40 left in the first half. Surprisingly little light-blue in the coliseum seats tonight to see it.

7:23 p.m. -- Familiar face seated two rows behind the North Carolina bench: Former L.A. Lakers and Miami Heat coach and current Heat general manager Pat Riley. Word is, he's here to take a hard look at Georgia Tech freshman Derrick Favors, the ACC rookie of the year.

7:16 p.m. -- Georgia Tech takes the early 10-7 lead on North Carolina, but one good sign for the hurting Heels. The coach's shoulder is fine. Roy Williams scooped up a loose ball and flipped it to the referees with his surgically-repaired left arm.

7:01 p.m. -- Georgia Tech senior guard D'Andre Bell honored with the Bob Bradley Spirit and Courage Award before the game. Bell came back this season after missing all of last year recovering from surgery for spinal stenosis.

-- JEFF MILLS, Staff Writer