NC State Wins First Title Since 1987 with Victory Against UNC

WASHINGTON- With their pair of DJs spinning a winning tune, the NC State Wolfpack are going dancing in the NCAA Tournament after capping a historic run by knocking off fourth-ranked North Carolina.

DJ Horne scored 29 points, DJ Burns Jr. had 20, including the first 3-pointer of his college career, and NC State won the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament final, beating the Tar Heels, 84-76, on Saturday night.

The Wolfpack became just the second team to win any conference tournament as a double-digit seed, 10th out of 15 teams, and the first to win the ACC’s with five victories in as many days.

“Winning five games in five nights is a miracle,” emotional NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. “We’ve got to get some rest because, guess what, we’re going to the NCAA tournament.”

Horne starred while playing 32 minutes through foul trouble, going shot for shot with UNC’s unanimous ACC player of the year RJ Davis, who was spectacular with 30 points.

As he encouraged cheers from the crowd, fans in red chanted, “DJ Horne! DJ Horne!” when he fouled out with 1:11 left.

“I can’t even put it into words right now,” Horne said. “Just a week ago, it was looking like our season was about to be over, and here we are now, man, on top of the world.”

Fans then chanted Burns’ name when he was named tournament MVP.

“We knew we were capable of it,” Burns said. “It just doesn’t feel real. It may eventually.”

After Keatts said repeatedly his team was one of many needing to win the conference tournament to make the NCAAs, his Wolfpack (22-14) won the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1987 under Jim Valvano, when it was played outside Washington in Landover, Maryland.

That one came in a similar fashion: against the top-seeded and regular-season champion Tar Heels, who had beaten the Wolfpack twice that season, just like this year.

The Wolfpack snatched an automatic NCAA bid, bursting someone’s bubble and giving the ACC at least a fourth team in the NCAA Tournament along with locks UNC, Duke and Clemson. 

“Like I said from the jump, man, why not us?” Horne said.

UNC (27-7) likely shored up a top seed for March Madness by reaching the final with a rout of Florida State, then getting a starring performance from Davis to beat Pitt in the semifinals. Davis, Armando Bacot and their teammates won the ACC regular-season title but went cold down the stretch on Saturday, missing 12 consecutive shots down the stretch.

“We didn’t play our best basketball,” Davis said. “Coach (Hubert) Davis always talks about response and how we’re going to respond when we get knocked down, so going into the March Madness, we’re going to have to prepare, come together as a group and fix the mistakes that we made tonight.”

The fatigue of playing a fifth game in as many days, including overtime in the semifinals against Virginia, was noticeable at times. But NC State muscled through it, with plenty of bulk inside from Burns, a 6-foot-9, 260-pound fifth-year senior.

In addition to backing down Bacot for several baskets and tying his career high with seven assists, his 3-pointer with the shot clock running out in the first half was his first from beyond the arc in his 160th college game. He shimmied back down the court, flexed toward the crowd in the final minutes and his next action will be in the NCAA Tournament.

Of Note

• NC State won its 11th ACC Tournament Championship on Saturday, the third-most in conference history.
• NC State becomes just the second team to win five games in five days to win its conference tournament, joining the 2011 UConn Huskies.
• The Wolfpack became the first team seeded eighth or lower to win the ACC Tournament.
• NC State is also the first 10 seed or lower to ever win a Power Six conference tournament.
• NC State played for an ACC Championship for the 18th time in program history.
• The Wolfpack are the first team to ever play five games in the ACC Tournament, doing so over just five days.
• NC State will enter the NCAA Tournament riding a five-game winning streak. 
• NC State’s last win over a nationally-ranked top-four team was on Jan. 6, 2018, against Duke.
• DJ Burns Jr. is the first NC State player to win ACC Tournament MVP since Vinny Del Negro in 1987.
• Burns knocked down his first career 3-pointer with 3:09 to play in the opening half.
• Burns becomes just the seventh player in ACC Tournament championship game history to record at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists.
• With six assists in the opening half of action, Burns had already logged a new career-high. Burns finished with seven helpers in the game.
• Burns eclipsed 20 points for just the second time this season, finishing with 20. DJ Horne led the Wolfpack in scoring with 29.
• DJ Horne scored 13 points in the opening half which tied for the lead among all scorers. 
• Mohamed Diarra hauled in a total of 60 rebounds during the Wolfpack’s tournament run, the most rebounds by a player in a single ACC Tournament. He surpassed Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan record of 56 in 1996.
• RJ Davis knocked down three 3-pointers in the opening half to bring his season total to 105, tying the North Carolina single-season record. Knocking down his fourth triple of the game, Davis broke the Tar Heel record with 8:38 remaining in regulation.
• Armando Bacot logged his 85th career double-double, moving into sole possession of second place in ACC history. Only Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan has more with 87. Nobody across Division I basketball has more double-doubles than Bacot since 2019-20 when his collegiate career began.
• Bacot ties the ACC Tournament record with his eighth double-double in postseason play, matching Tim Duncan and Duke’s Carroll Youngkin.
• Bacot becomes just the 17th player in ACC history to record three consecutive double-doubles in one ACC Tournament and the first to do so since North Carolina’s John Henson in 2011.

(Courtesy of the Atlantic Coast Conference)