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Why North Carolina won

The Tar Heels jumped to an early 9-0 lead and although hit a few rough patches, never trailed, dominating the Tigers in almost every aspect of the game. Clemson cut the lead to 20-19 with 9:20 to play in the first half, but then the Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run and never gave up the lead. The Tar Heels man-to-man defense forced 25 turnovers and converted them into 29 points. North Carolina shot 44 percent for the game and 46 percent in the second half to keep the pressure on Clemson. The Tar Heels shot only 12 3-pointers because they dominated around the basket by scoring 40 points in the paint.

Why Clemson lost

After cutting the Tar Heels' lead to 41-34 at halftime, the Tigers came out flat to start the second half and North Carolina made Clemson pay. Despite outrebounding the Tar Heels and getting 17 offensive rebounds against a formidable North Carolina frontline, Clemson shot only 29 percent in the second half and 36 percent for the game.

Records

North Carolina 23-7, Clemson 10-20

Play of the game

After Clemson cut the lead to 58-51 with 9:27 to play in the second half, the Tar Heels scored eight unanswered points, with two of those baskets coming on offensive put backs, one by Jessica Breland and one by Chay Shegog. The Tigers would never get that close again.

The key player

Cetera DeGraffenreid, North Carolina. The Tar Heels' point guard was all over the court, making steals, finding open teammates, hitting shots when needed and simply controlling the flow of the game. She finished with 11 points, eight assists, six steals, four rebounds and committed only one turnover.

She said ...

"This is a new season and we have four games to go in the season. So just look at it as that season (the regular season) is over and now we have a championship to win."

— North Carolina guard Cetera DeGraffenreid, talking about her team, which had lost four straight coming into the ACC tournament

Noting the game

No. 6 seed North Carolina advances to play No. 3 seed Florida State, which it beat 84-75 in the teams only regular season meeting in Tallahassee, Fla. DeGraffenreid leads the ACC and is fifth in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. Clemson, which didn't score a point for the first 3:30 of the game, trailed 17-4 with 14:23 to play in the first half. The score the rest of the game was North Carolina 61, Clemson 60

CLEMSON (10-20) — Tate 4-8 0-0 8, Mason 2-8 0-0 4, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Wright 5-10 3-4 16, Thomas 3-12 0-0 7, Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Pettaway 0-0 0-0 0, Dunn 3-8 0-1 6, Shelton 5-14 3-5 14, Welker 0-0 0-0 0, Pauldo 4-11 0-0 9. Totals 26-71 6-10 64.

NORTH CAROLINA (23-7) — White 2-7 0-0 5, Coleman 0-0 0-0 0, Wood 1-4 0-0 3, Shegog 5-8 1-2 11, Gross 2-4 2-2 6, DeGraffenreid 4-7 3-4 11, Rolle 2-2 1-2 5, Broomfield 2-4 4-9 8, Ruffin-Pratt 2-9 0-0 4, Lucas 6-12 1-2 14, Breland 5-12 1-2 11. Totals 31-69 13-23 78.

Halftime—North Carolina 41-34.

3-point goals—Clemson 6-25 (Wright 3-6, Pauldo 1-3, Shelton 1-7, Thomas 1-9), North Carolina 3-12 (Wood 1-2, White 1-2, Lucas 1-4, DeGraffenreid 0-1, Breland 0-1, Ruffin-Pratt 0-2).

Fouled out—None.

Rebounds—Clemson 46 (Wright 10), North Carolina 44 (Shegog 8).

Assists—Clemson 12 (Shelton 4), North Carolina 15 (DeGraffenreid 8).

Total fouls—Clemson 17, North Carolina 14.

A—4,971.