CHARLOTTE -- Kyle Guy kept his team afloat in the first half and finished with 29 points on 10-for-13 shooting while Jack Salt added a career-high 18 to help No. 1-seeded Virginia beat No. 8-seeded NC State 76-56 in the first quarterfinal of the ACC Tournament on Thursday afternoon.
Falling behind by as many as six after leading by eight in the first half, the Cavaliers (29-2) trailed by two at the break but used a 10-2 run after the under-16 to help get the lead back. The tail end of that run, a putback by Salt and a four-point play for Guy, turned into a 14-1 spurt that put the Hoos up 12 with less than 12 left.
And on a day when Ty Jerome and De'Andre Hunter combined to go 4-for-18 from the field, UVa managed to beat the Wolfpack for the first time in this event in six tries since 1986 because Hunter managed to score 16 (going 8-for-10 at the free-throw line) and Jerome finished with 10 assists and five rebounds.
Markell Johnson had 13 points for NC State in the loss while DJ Funderburk added 12.
UVa led State 8-4 at the first media timeout thanks to an 8-0 run after Wyatt Walker scored inside for the game's opening basket. Hunter put up three points in a row for the Hoos, first off a roll to the basket and then making one of two at the line. After Guy hit a 3-pointer, he dished a no-look dime to Salt for a dunk.
By the under-12 Virginia was up because of Guy, who scored eight in a row for the Hoos. But Devon Daniels and CJ Bryce scored back-to-back buckets for the Wolfpack before Mamadi Diakite scored off a Kihei Clark with 12:15 left in the half. NC State (22-11) then scored the game's next 14 points, turning the eight-point deficit into a six-point lead with 8:20 left until the break.
Guy's third 3-pointer of the day stopped the bleeding, UVa's first field goal in 4:11. And a Jay Huff 3 with 47 seconds left in the half cut the deficit to two at the break. But the Cavaliers finished the first 20 minutes shooting 10-for-24 and turning it over six times.
Things didn't exactly start out great for Virginia thereafter, as Braxton Beverly got loose on a drive for the Wolfpack. But Salt's and-1 with 17:57 left—the first of three he'd have in the half–gave the Cavaliers a huge boost. Following an offensive board near the sideline he collected the possession, drove down the baseline, went up and under, and scored through contact before making the free throw.
Johnson responded with a 3 before UVa scored the next five points in a row. The first two came from Hunter at the stripe and the next three off another Salt and-1, which gave the Hoos the lead back with 15:39 left.
Though Funderburk scored to give State a brief one-point lead shorty thereafter, Salt's putback with 14:53 gave Virginia the advantage for good. It was the start of a 14-1 run fueled at the end by back-to-back 3s from Hunter and Guy. And after Johnson hit another 3, went on an 8-2 run to seal it while holding the Pack without a field goal for 5:08.
With the win, the Cavaliers advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time in six years and will face either Virginia Tech or Florida State tomorrow night (7 p.m., Raycom/ESPN).
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