Up 63-54 with 9:59 remaining, the rug was pulled out from under the Tar Heels.

The No. 5 seed North Carolina men’s basketball team fell to third-seeded Notre Dame, 90-82, Saturday night in the ACC Tournament championship game at the Greensboro Coliseum.

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Justin Jackson struggled to recapture his Friday form (Todd Melet)

Justin Jackson struggled to recapture his Friday form (Todd Melet)

A 26-3 second half run from the Fighting Irish turned the tables in the league newcomer’s favor – giving them their first ACC title and leaving the Tar Heels the disappointed runner-up for the third time in the last four years.

“I love how fearless we are when we step up and take big-time shots. We’ve done that all year though. We really have,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey says.

Tournament MVP Jerian Grant finished with 24 points and 10 assists to lead an overwhelmingly balanced offensive attack for the Irish.

Fellow senior Pat Connaughton tallied 20 points, including four pure shots from behind the arc.

“That was a big-time game for about 30, 32 minutes, and then after that it was a big game if you were a Notre Dame fan. It wasn’t for us,” UNC head coach Roy Williams says.

As for the Tar Heels, junior guard Marcus Paige did all he could, posting 24 points, including five of UNC’s seven made three-pointers.

Paige says despite leaving Greensboro without a trophy, his teammates  aren’t going away empty-handed.

Paige did his best to keep the Tar Heels in it (Todd Melet)

Paige did his best to keep the Tar Heels in it (Todd Melet)

“I think we showed a lot of heart this week. We battled four straight times. Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to today. You know, we were going after 50-50 balls with everything we had. So people can say what they want, but the proof is in the fact that we competed at the highest level this past week,” Paige says.

But what may have been the most decisive factor to the outcome was the foul shooting discrepancy. The Irish got to the free throw line for a whopping 32 attempts while the Heels managed a mere seven shots from the charity stripe.

In the first half, the three-point shooting discrepancy told the tale. The Irish knocked down five of their eleven attempts while the Heels only managed to connect on one of their eight tries.

Additionally, getting to the free throw line was a factor in Notre Dame’s 39-34 lead at intermission. The Irish shot 11 foul shots to Carolina’s measly 2 attempts.

Brice Johnson finished with 20 points and four rebounds (Todd Melet)

Brice Johnson finished with 20 points and four rebounds (Todd Melet)

Things were going smoothly for the Tar Heels early in the second half. UNC led 63-54 with 9:59 remaining. But from there, the rug was taken out from under them. Carolina froze. Notre Dame rose.

The Irish left the Heels in the dust with a 26-3 run that seized full control of the contest and in turn, earned the program’s first ever conference championship.

The Carolina faithful were sent home to various corners of the Tar Heel State unhappy. The few Notre Dame fans were left to bask in their team’s historic performance, becoming just the third program to ever beat both Duke and Carolina on the way to an ACC Tournament championship held in North Carolina.

Notre Dame (29-5) and Carolina (24-11) will now await their NCAA Tournament placements Sunday evening.

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