UNC nips Virginia Tech

ATLANTA — Last March, it was North Carolina that dashed Virginia Tech’s NCAA Tournament hopes. A year later, the Tar Heels may have done it again.
On Friday afternoon at the Georgia Dome, UNC, playing without ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson, was able to fend off a pesky Virginia Tech team, defeating the Hokies, 79-76, in front of a crowd of 26,352.
“Unfortunately we got the same story and the same ending,” said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg.
With the victory, UNC advanced to today’s quarterfinals against Florida State. The loss, meanwhile, put a severe dent in Virginia Tech’s NCAA Tournament chances.
“I’m not going there,” said Greenberg, when asked about his team’s Big Dance hopes. “You guys can have some other village idiot give you a good
story.”
Top-seeded UNC (28-3) was led by Tyler Hansbrough, who scored a game-high 28 points and had eight rebounds. Hansbrough’s awkward-looking reverse shot with 33 seconds remaining as the difference.
“I was just excited that we got the win,” Hansbrough said. “We had to crawl our way back. We were kind of in a hole. I’m just glad we’re playing another day.”
After Virginia Tech lost possession on a questionable held-ball call, Hansbrough hit two free throws for a 3-point lead.
The Hokies’ A.D. Vassallo missed what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer from the left wing with Hansbrough lunging at him as time expired.
Virginia Tech (18-14) was led by Vassallo’s 26 points. His put-back shot off his own miss with 52 seconds left had given Tech a 76-75 lead. 
Tech went toe-to-toe with UNC the entire game. The Hokies raced out to an 11-4 lead but trailed by a point at the half.
“We just couldn’t get a defensive rebound when we needed to get one. We competed at a high level and took care of the basketball but we just weren’t tough enough when we needed to be,” Greenberg said.
“But I’m really proud of our guys because I thought we competed really hard.”
North Carolina got solid contributions from its bench — namely freshmen Ed Davis, Larry Drew and Tyler Zeller.
“It was an ugly game,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams. “I’ve said many, many times that you have to win some games ugly in order to have a great year.”