The Miami Hurricanes rode guard Shane Larkin and his 28 points to an 87-77 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game Sunday. It was the first tournament title in team history.
The Hurricanes topped the Tar Heels for the third time this season behind Larkin and his hot shooting. He was 8-of-15 from the field including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Larkin also sank all eight of his free throw attempts to finish with 28 points. Larkin was second in the ACC Player of the Year voting behind Virginia Tech's Erick Green, but took home the ACC Tournament's MVP award.
The Hurricanes were picked to finish fifth in the ACC but started conference play a white-hot 13-0. They lost three of their last five entering the ACC tournament though. Larkin and his teammates never lost the chip on their shoulder as their top scorer indicated after the game. ''I don't know about the other guys on the team, but I do a lot of research online, seeing what people are saying about us individual players on our team, and I just kept seeing that everywhere: 'They peaked too early, they're not going to do anything, they're finished. That just motivated me to go out there and play as hard as I could.''
The Tar Heels fought hard against the top-seeded Hurricanes, and P.J. Hairston matched Larkin step for step. Hairston also finished with 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including 6-of-13 from deep. He didn't have a ton of help though-James Michael McAdoo was the next leading scorer for UNC with 12. Larkin's sidekick for the day was Trey McKinney Jones, who poured in 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Trey's first name proved appropriate-he nailed six threes in the win.
Miami enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the East region where Indiana is No. 1. The Tar Heels earned a No. 8 seed and will take on Villanova in the round of 64. If they advance past Villanova, the Tar Heels will likely run into Kansas, where Roy Williams coached from 1988-2003. Kansas defeated Williams' Heels in the 2008 Final Four and eventually beat Derrick Rose and the Memphis Tigers for the title.
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