Miami Hurricanes and North Carolina have double rematch in ACC Tournament

For the second year in a row, the Miami Hurricanes and North Carolina will play in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. The top-seeded Tar Heels ousted Miami 78-53 last season. It’s also the team’s second meeting in less than two weeks. Miami won 91-88 in Chapel Hill on February 27.

Like last season the Miami Hurricanes enter their ACC Tournament showdown with North Carolina off a win in the teams only meeting of the regular season. Last year was at the Watsco Center and this season was in Chapel Hill.

Miami is  the higher seeded team this year. The Hurricanes were the ninth seed in last season’s ACC Tournament facing the top-seeded Tar Heels.

Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Clemson tied for third place in the final ACC Regular Season standings this year. By virtue of their 2-1 record against the other three teams, Miami got the three seed. North Carolina is the sixth seed this time around. In spite of that Miami is not expected to defeat North Carolina.

The game that was played at the Smith Center last week was played at North Carolina’s pace. North Carolina is 22nd in the nation averaging 82.1 points per game.

The Tar Heels rallied to tie the game late on a Joel Berry three-point field goal with four seconds left. Ja’Quan Newton answered with a three of his own at the buzzer to win the game.

Four Tar Heels finished in double figures in the loss to Miami last week. Berry went off for 31 points including the last second tying basket. He finished with 31 points on 11 of 17 from the floor including making five of his eight three-point attempts. Cameron Johnson came off the bench to score 20 points on 7-10 and 3-5.