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GREENSBORO -- North Carolina and Duke saved the ACC from a basketball apocalypse Saturday, sweeping their second-round games at the Greensboro Coliseum one day after one of the league's most ignominious falls from grace.

Carolina got its point guard back and throttled LSU, 84-70, then Duke got its NCAA swerve back and took down Texas, 74-69.

Only hours after losses by Boston College, Florida State and embarrassing Wake Forest, and mere minutes after Maryland lost the league's fourth straight game, North Carolina took the floor in front of a packed house of Tar Heels fans and stemmed the black tide.

Thirty years after Black Sunday, the day in March 1979 that saw Carolina and Duke fall on the same Raleigh court in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the conference's banner programs found themselves staring down the biggest disaster in ACC history. Clemson had started the fall Thursday, but it gained downward momentum until Wake Forest hit rock bottom in Miami late Friday night.

Every single fan that walked into the coliseum Saturday was talking about it, discussing the three Friday losses anchored by the Wake debacle and looking up at the coliseum scoreboard showing Maryland's season disappearing in some other faraway region.

And then Ty Lawson ran in.

The loudest roar of the entire tournament here erupted from 22,479 fans stretched to the rafters as the Carolina point guard loped in wearing his uniform and something of a smirk.

"It was the North Carolina team again," coach Roy Williams said.

Williams had been on the bench that day in 1979 as a UNC assistant coach watching the shocking East Regional collapse of top-seeded Carolina. After second-seeded Duke fell in the late afternoon game, the ACC was completely out of the NCAA tournament in the second round. The long shadow of that weekend still resonates, and until this week it was assumed that Sunday afternoon in Reynolds was the worst it would ever be.

Duke hadn't gotten out of the first weekend in two years, and there were those who believed Texas to be a bad matchup for the Devils. The Longhorns (now 23-12) had one of the nation's top guards (A.J. Abrams), a huge inside presence (6-10 center Dexter Pittman) and about 20,000 Carolina fans screaming for Texas. Duke's three-gun offense shot down the Longhorns with a steady stream of drives by Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler and the kind of defense they don't play in the Big 12.

Still, Texas stayed close, came back from 10 down to tie the game late, then wore down in the waning minutes, with Carolina fans tiring of pulling against Duke and streaming out of the coliseum. The Blue Devils had finally gotten out of the first weekend.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski had been stung by the criticism recently that Duke was no longer the program it had been in its glory run from 1986-2004. And he was steeled for an unpleasant welcome as he walked into the coliseum after the Carolina game. But he said he was energized by the response and credited Duke's fans and what he called "ACC fans" for helping pull his team through.

He'd watched the games Friday and was aware of the Maryland loss before he walked in Saturday. And he knew of that day 30 years ago when Penn beat Carolina and St. John's beat Duke.

"It wasn't a good weekend for the ACC," he said. "Saturday picked up."

He said that, despite the passion for the rivals, Greensboro has a calming effect on everything, especially with the specter of the ACC going down hard.

"When things are in Greensboro, it's in the heart of the ACC," he said. "When you get down to it, you want the ACC to do well."

Carolina stopped the ACC's death spiral with its win over LSU, and Duke dragged the conference through the second round. The Blue Devils (now 30-6) went cold at the end, their outside shots suddenly slamming off the front of the rim, their legs almost gone from the two games here and the withering run to the ACC title last week.

The teams had taken the court Saturday with the conference almost in ruins. While the rival Big East with its three top seeds rolled on, the ACC lost five of its seven teams before Carolina's players had warmed up.

The atmosphere became white-hot during one of the most impressive runs of basketball in the entire tournament, with Carolina and LSU playing in a blur that kept the crowd on its feet almost the entire game.

Then came Duke, teasing its fans and Carolina's, too, by blowing the lead before fighting back to win late and giving the conference its second ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.

A day that dawned dark and ominous for the ACC turned out to be a Blue Saturday after all, both shades from the two basketball powers, slightly bruised.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com