Round 1 of the 2014 ACC Tournament is in the books, as teams that struggled during
league play battled for a chance to extend their season.
Game 1: Wake Forest: 81 Notre Dame: 69
The first game of the day featured 12th seeded Wake Forest vs 13th seeded Notre Dame. These two met once in the regular season with the Deacs defeating the Irish 65-58. With this a virtual home game for Wake, there’s no surprise they won handedly – snapping a 7-game losing streak in the ACC Tournament.
Notre Dame ended a disappointing first season in the ACC with a 6-13 league record and 15-17 overall. For the first time in 6 seasons they failed to win a post-season tournament game, but don’t expect an Irish Team that suffered through injuries to stay down long. They’ll be back and ready to compete next year.
Wake Forest will take on 5th seeded Pittsburgh tomorrow at 2pm.
Game 2: Miami 57 Virginia Tech 53
This was by far the most enjoyable match-up of the day, as these two played a very physical and scrappy game. The two met twice this year with Virginia Tech winning both contests and as we all know, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row…especially in a dog fight like this was.
The game was close throughout, but the Hurricanes using their 4th ranked league defense and good free throw shooting, were able to close it out.
Defending champion Miami now improves their ACC tournament winning streak to four in a row and will take on 7th seeded NC State tomorrow at 7pm.
Game 3: Georgia Tech: 73 Boston College: 70 OT
Not sure how the most boring game turned into an overtime thriller at the blink of an eye, but it did. Boston College overcame a 13-point 2nd half deficit to force a third period against a Georgia Tech team that beat them twice during the regular season. Free Throws was the word for the night as both teams shot poorly from the line and fittingly the team that won made theirs down the stretch.
Georgia Tech will continue to try to ride the wave of tonight’s victory and previous wins against Syracuse and Virginia Tech, Thursday night against 6th seeded Clemson.
All of tomorrow’s games will be televised on ESPN and you can follow me on Twitter @VashtiHurt for live updates.