Tar Heels, Blue Devils survive in ACC

ATLANTA, March 14 (UPI) -- Tyler Hansbrough saved No. 1 North Carolina from elimination in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals Friday and Duke barely survived as well.

Ninth-ranked Wake Forest, however, was knocked out by Maryland and became the sixth team out of the top 11 in the nation to fall in a 48-hour period.

Hansbrough scored 28 points, including the last six of the game, allowing the Tar Heels to fight off Virginia Tech 79-76.

In the final game of the night, Duke took the lead on Gerald Henderson's layup with 34 seconds left and pulled out a 66-65 victory over Boston College.

Florida State also won a thrilling 64-62 decision over Georgia Tech to set up a meeting with North Carolina in Saturday's semifinals and Maryland ousted Wake Forest 75-64 to create a showdown with Duke.

Wake Forest joined No. 2 Pittsburgh and No. 4 Connecticut in the Big East, No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 11 Kansas in the Big 12 and No. 10 Washington in the Pacific-10 as upset victims.

North Carolina (28-3) survived despite playing without point guard Ty Lawson, who sat out with a toe injury. The Tar Heels had to rally from a 74-71 deficit with 3:30 to play.

Derwin Kitchen converted a 3-point play with 6 seconds to play in Florida State's win. The Seminoles will take a 24-8 record into their meeting with North Carolina.

Maryland (20-12) put together a run early in the second half that opened a 17-point lead. Greivis Vasquez led the Terrapins with 22 points.

Boston College overcame an eight-point deficit late in the game and took a one-point lead on Joe Trapani's two free throws with 52 seconds left. Henderson saved the game, however, and Duke survived a missed shot at the buzzer by Rakim Sanders.