Will it be déjà vu? Upstart Virginia came from the sixth seed in 1976 to sweep the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament from the No. 4 Tar Heels in Landover, Maryland, and claim their first league crown. In 1977 at the Greensboro Coliseum, the Wahoos are trying to do it again from the seventh seed against the two-time regular season champion, the sixth-ranked Tar Heels.
North Carolina Captures ACC Championship By Edging Virginia
By LUTHER GAILLARD
Assistant Sports Editor
GREENSBORO, N. C. -- Last year Virginia won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship following a three-day plow job in the tournament and it was hailed as the "Cinderella Story" of college basketball.
This year the story bore similar earmarks. It has to be called the "Cinderella Story Revisited -- Almost."
While Virginia was stumbling through December, January, and most of February, teams like Wake Forest, Clemson, and North Carolina were enjoying banner seasons.
But the Cavaliers, who came into this tournament in much the same position a year ago, dropped Wake Forest on Thursday, chilled Clemson on Friday and came within an inch of pasting North Carolina Saturday.
But the fourth-ranked and top seeded Tar Heels gained a slight advantage in the final minutes, shifted into the four corners and budged defending champion Virginia, 75-69, before a full house of 15,735 and a regional television audience.
"This was the most unusual game," UNC's Dean Smith said after all the nets had been chopped down and most all the people had gone home. "There was a lot of emotion on both teams. They came in with five tournament wins (three last year) and all five were different teams all ranked above them."
The Cavaliers zipped through N. C. State, Maryland, and North Carolina at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Md., and this year stumbled only in the final minutes against the Tar Heels. All six teams Virginia faced in the tournament were ranked.
"North Carolina did exactly what they had to do tonight," Virginia's Terry Holland said. "They forced the tempo and we were so exhausted that we couldn't go. There is no question that the kids gave everything they had but were about four minutes short of winning this one."
The Tar Heels showed up with Walter Davis in uniform but the Olympian from Pineville was forced to the bench with the injury to the index finger on his shooting hand, the injury he received in the win over N.C. State. It was only Saturday morning that officials discovered the finger was broken.
Davis, with the finger taped to his middle finger, made his entrance with 15:48 left and Virginia holding a 46-43 lead.
"I didn't think we would be able to play Walter because he was hardly able to catch the ball but he pleaded with me and I'm a sentimentalist so I let him in," Smith said.
It was during that time that Davis gave the Tar Heels a lift and they went from three down to three up. But Virginia shook off all the emotional effects that the Tar Heels gained by Davis' presence and ran up a 62-55 lead with 7:39 to go on the strength of six straight points.
"We had our chances," Holland said. "We had control of the game then but we had to try to ease off a little and you can't do that against a team like North Carolina. They just controlled the tempo on us."
Defense, if anything, tied up the championship for the Tar Heels. They pressed Virginia out of its shoes in the second half and forced enough turnovers to take a 65-64 lead with 4:19 to go on a bucket by Tom Zaliagiris cutting down the lane.
It was during that period that North Carolina was forcing three straight turnovers and operating with only two starters on the floor. Phil Ford, the leading scorer with 26 points, fouled out with 5:45 to go.
Mike O'Koren, who had 21 points and eight rebounds, came through with a key three-pointer with 6:19 to go. Marc Iavaroni was charged with a blocking foul on O'Koren's drive in the lane with 6:19 to go and it cut Virginia's lead from 64-58 to 64-61.
We wound up with all those players on the bench but we went on to win some way, somehow," Smith said. "It was a real gutty performance by our guys. They wanted it bad."
The Tar Heels will represent the ACC in the NCAA playoffs beginning Saturday with a date opposite an at-large entry at Raleigh.
"We will go to the playoffs and do the best we can," Smith added. "This has been a great team and they deserved whatever comes their way."
It appeared that North Carolina was on the verge of making a move midway through the first half, pulling into a 17-12 lead on a three point play by Ford and a 17 footer by Kuester.
But the sizzling Cavaliers weren't ready to lay down and let the Tar Heels take over. David Koesters and Langloh dropped in two from the perimeter to pull the unranked Wahoos within a point and by the time the clock had wound down to 5:13, Virginia was sitting on a slight 28-27 lead on four straight free throws, two by Stokes and the other two by Owens.
Stokes canned a 17 footer to give Virginia a 30-27 lead with 4:35 to go but the Tar Heels hadn't fallen out of the first half picture. O'Koren brought the Heels back with four points and Kuester knocked in six of North Carolina's final eight points.
Iavaroni had a final crack at giving the Cavaliers a three-point cushion at the half but the inside attempt was short, North Carolina's 80-foot toss was just off its mark at the buzzer and Virginia carried the shaky 40-39 lead into intermission.
There were 27 free throws launched in the first half and 25 of them fell through the net. Virginia was 14 of 14 and the Tar Heels were 11 of 13.
Ford was the hottest item on the floor, hitting seven of 10 attempts and turning in a five-of-five effort from the line for 19 points.
VIRGINIA (69) FG FT REB PF TP
Koesters 2-2 0-0 1 5 4
Iavaroni 4-8 2-5 10 4 10
Castellan 2-8 0-1 7 4 4
Langloh 5-11 2-3 3 3 12
Stokes 6-9 5-6 1 4 17
Fulton 0-1 2-2 2 0 2
Newlen 0-5 4-4 3 2 4
Owens 3-5 10-10 6 2 16
Briscoe 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Jefferson 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Team 1
TEAM TOTALS 22-49 25-32 35 25 69
NO CAROLINA (75) FG FT REB PF TP
Buckley 1-2 0-0 3 4 2
O'Koren 8-14 5-5 8 5 21
Yonakor 0-2 4-4 4 3 4
Ford 10-18 6-7 2 5 26
Kuester 4-7 6-6 2 3 14
Zaliagiris 2-4 0-0 1 3 4
Davis 0-1 0-0 0 2 0
Wolf 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Krafcisin 2-3 0-0 1 1 4
Colescott 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Bradley 0-0 0-2 3 4 0
Coley 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
TEAM 0
TOTALS 27-51 21-25 24 31 75
Field goal percentages: Virginia 44.9; North Carolina 52.9
ASSISTS
Virginia (8): Koesters 1, Iavaroni 1, Castellan 1, Langloh 4, Owens 1
North Carolina (11): O'Koren 2, Ford 3, Kuester 3, Krafcisin 2, Bradley 1
TURNOVERS
Virginia (16): Iavaroni 4, Castellan 1, Langloh 2, Stokes 5, Owens 4.
North Carolina (13): Buckley 1, O'Koren 2, Ford 3, Kuester 1, Davis 1, Krafcisin 1, Colescott 1. Bradley 3.
A -- 15,735
[From The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, March 6, 1977]
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