Chucky Hepburn had 20 points, none bigger than a midrange jumper at the buzzer that lifted No. 13 Louisville to a 75-73 win over Stanford in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals on Thursday in Charlotte, N.C.
Hepburn collected a loose-ball offensive rebound and quickly released the 10-footer from the left elbow, his 14th and 15th points of the second half that helped the second-seeded Cardinals (26-6) complete their comeback after trailing by 15 points in the second half.
Louisville will face No. 3 Clemson in Friday semifinals. Terrence Edwards Jr. had 25 points for the Cardinals, who have now won 10 straight.
Oziyah Sellers paced Stanford (20-13) with 22 points, while Maxime Raynaud added 17.
No. 1 Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
Kon Knueppel erupted for a career-high 28 points to lead the No. 1 seed Blue Devils to a quarterfinal win over the No. 8 Yellow Jackets — a victory clouded by the loss of Cooper Flagg, who left in the first half with a left ankle injury.
Knueppel added eight assists for Duke (29-3), which rallied from a 14-point deficit in the first half, using a 19-2 run spanning the halftime break. Isaiah Evans and Khaman Maluach each had 14 points for the Blue Devils, who will face No. 5 North Carolina in Friday’s semifinals.
Duncan Powell paced Georgia Tech (17-16) with 24 points, while Baye Ndongo added 15. Lance Terry scored 12 for the Yellow Jackets.
North Carolina 68, Wake Forest 59
RJ Davis scored 23 points and connected on key 3-point shots as the Tar Heels fended off the Demon Deacons.
Ven-Allen Lubin and Seth Trimble added 10 points apiece for North Carolina (22-12), which won for the second day in a row and avenged a one-point road loss to Wake from the regular season.
Hunter Sallis poured in 25 points and Tre’Von Spillers racked up 10 points for Wake Forest (21-11), which shot 33.9 percent and missed 11 of its last 12 shots. The Demon Deacons shot 2-for-22 from the 3-point arc.
Clemson 57, SMU 54
The third-seeded Tigers took a shaky first step in pursuit of their first ACC title as Chase Hunter scored 21 points in beating the sixth-seeded Mustangs in Charlotte.
Jaeden Zackery added 11 points and three steals as the Tigers (27-5) held the Mustangs without a field goal over the final 6:14 to advance to Friday’s semifinals. Clemson will face second-seeded Louisville in a matchup of teams riding winning streaks of nine and 10 games.
Matt Cross scored 13 points for SMU (23-10), which is unlikely to gain an NCAA Tournament bid as it entered Thursday in the No. 44 slot in the NET rankings.
–Field Level Media
