Maryland rallies but falls short against North Carolina in ACC semis

GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina and its four-guard lineup have a chance at another Atlantic Coast Conference championship — thanks in part to a Maryland guard whose last-gasp shot fell way short.

Dexter Strickland and Reggie Bullock scored 15 points apiece, and the Tar Heels held on to beat the Terrapins 79-76 on Saturday in the league tournament semifinals.

Next up: a meeting Sunday with No. 9 Miami, the tournament’s top seed, with North Carolina’s 18th league tournament title on the line.

The Hurricanes’ regular-season sweep included a humiliating 26-point win last month at Miami that led coach Roy Williams to make P.J. Hairston a starter and play with a smaller, quicker group.

“They haven’t seen us with our new lineup yet,” Bullock said. “We just have to get our face back. They definitely embarrassed us when we went down there … and for us to have the opportunity to play against them on the last night before we go to the NCAA tournament is great.”

Hairston scored 13 points despite a heavily wrapped and injured left (non-shooting) hand for the third-seeded Tar Heels (24-9), but his missed free throw with 16 seconds left gave Maryland a chance to force overtime.

The Terps called time out with 10.9 seconds left, and Logan Aronhalt took the inbounds pass from Nick Faust and immediately launched a 30-foot airball.

Bullock snatched the ball and passed to Hairston, who was alone near midcourt, and the Tar Heels ran out the clock to clinch their league-record 32nd appearance in the title game.

Faust said the plan was to get the ball to Aronhalt — a 44 percent 3-point shooter — with tournament MVP candidate Dez Wells the decoy. The Terps wanted to get a 3-pointer off before the Tar Heels could foul them and send them to the line for two shots.

“It was designed for me to get a 3. I just came off the screen a little too far away from the 3-point line,” Aronhalt said. “The shot was just too deep. … I knew immediately it wasn’t going in.”

Alex Len had 20 points to lead seventh-seeded Maryland (22-12), which knocked off No. 2 Duke less than 24 hours earlier in the quarterfinals and nearly pulled off another upset.

The Terrapins trailed by 10 with just over 7 minutes left before rallying to make things tight down the stretch.

“The amazing thing was that we put ourselves in the position to have that chance,” coach Mark Turgeon said.

But every time they got too close, North Carolina had an answer.

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