Sitting in his locker, knees drawn up and hands over his face, North Carolina State’s Alex Johnson took responsibility for the two plays that cost the Wolfpack a chance at playing for the ACC tournament championship.
Johnson’s turnover with 43 seconds remaining gave North Carolina a chance at victory, a chance they didn’t waste when Kendall Marshall made a bank shot with 10 seconds left to give the Tar Heels a 69-67 victory in the semifinals of the ACC tournament Saturday afternoon at Philips Arena.
The Tar Heels, who were without John Henson after he was injured in Friday’s win over Maryland, will play Florida State in Sunday’s championship game at 1 p.m. Tyler Zeller led the Tar Heels with 23 points. Harrison Barnes added 16.
Going one-on-one against Johnson, Marshall first looked for Barnes, who was closely covered. Moving back to the center of the court, Marshall drove left, lowered his shoulder and collided with Johnson, who flew backward. Marshall collected himself and made the short banker with 10 seconds remaining.
Coach Mark Gottfried jumped out of his seat as if by catapult, screaming “charge, charge” while pantomiming hitting someone with his shoulder.
“I knew he was going to go left, and I thought I beat him to the spot to take the charge,” Johnson said. “The officiating, they just let us play at the end. You can’t really blame them; it was a tough one.”
Gottfried declined to comment on the officiating, saying he didn’t want to get fined.
Marshall said he didn’t think the officials were going to call any “ticky-tack” fouls at the end of the game.
“We just wanted to get something going toward the rim,” Marshall said. “Thankfully enough I was able to get something at the backboard, and it went in.”
It was a difficult last minute for Johnson.
On the previous play, he and Lorenzo Brown had a miscommunication on a short pass near half court. Johnson thought Brown was too closely guarded to get the ball. When Brown turned to see where his defender was, Johnson threw the pass, which went out of bounds.
Brown raised his hands and asked, “Why would you do that?”
“It was my fault,” Johnson said. “I take the blame for that pass. Those are the types of passes you wish you could have back.”
After Marshall’s basket, the Wolfpack tried to quickly go underneath to an open DeShawn Painter, but Justin Watts saw the danger, moved over, stole the pass and threw the ball down the court as he fell out of bounds. Johnson chased it down and called timeout with 1.2 seconds left. The Wolfpack weren’t able to get off a shot.
“Big play by him,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “We feel very fortunate, like I said, but we also feel very happy. There have been a couple of games this year, at Kentucky and Duke at home, were we lost on second plays.”
The Wolfpack twice had leads of seven points early in the second half, before North Carolina, on a Zeller layup, gained a five-point lead with 8:59 remaining.
N.C. State’s C.J. Leslie, the Wolfpack’s main force on offense with 22 points, picked up his fourth foul on a charge with 8:35 remaining, becoming the third N.C. State player to get whistled for four fouls, joining Richard Howell and Painter. Leslie fouled out 32 seconds later, trying to challenge a shot by Barnes. Barnes made one free throw to give the Tar Heels a 58-52 lead.
The Wolfpack finally tied the score on a dunk and free throw by Brown with 1:31 left.
Zeller fouled out going for an offensive rebound with 1:08 left, and Painter made one of two free throws to give the Wolfpack a 67-66 lead.
Barnes tied the game with a free throw after being fouled by Woods with 58.6 seconds remaining, setting up the final sequence of plays.
“This is just a tough one to take,” Gottfried said.
