By R.L. Bynum

WASHINGTON — On the fifth day, N.C. State had plenty of magic left, and an out-of-sync Carolina team couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The No. 10-seed Wolfpack became the first ACC champion in league history to win five tournament games and the lowest seed to win it, knocking off No. 4-ranked North Carolina 84–76 Saturday at Capital One Arena.

Carolina (27–7) couldn’t hit enough shots in the final minutes, missing 11 of their last 12 shots in their worst loss of the season. The Tar Heels can only hope the defeat doesn’t cost them a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

“We just couldn’t guard them tonight,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said after the Wolfpack shot 54.9% from the floor and 42.9% from 3-point range. “That’s just not going to get it done.”

A big part of Carolina’s game is getting out in transition, but with State (22–4) shooting so well, led by DJ Horne’s 29 points, and only committing 10 turnovers, the Wolfpack stymied the Tar Heels.

“It’s a credit that we stayed in the game,” Coach Davis said. “From a defensive standpoint, we weren’t able to guard them one-on-one, whether it was on the post, isolations out on the wing. Didn’t play the type of defense that you have to have in order to win games like this.”

RJ Davis had 27 points and Armando Bacot scored 18, but got little help offensively. Except for Harrison Ingram 3-pointers at the start and end of the second half, every field goal after halftime came from Davis or Bacot. UNC shot 28.2% in the second half.

“Coach Davis always talks about our response and how we’re going to respond when we get knocked down,” RJ Davis said. “So, going into March Madness, we’re going to have to prepare, come together as a group and fix the mistakes that we made tonight.”

The Wolfpack, playing its fifth game in as many days, was supposed to be the team running out of gas and poise. But while State kept its foot on the gas, UNC had trouble finding a rhythm on both ends.

“I felt like our pace wasn’t up to par,” RJ Davis said. “We didn’t play really with a quick pace and get down in transition and get easy baskets for us. I kind of just felt like we played into the slow pace of their defense.”

Tournament MVP D.J. Burns Jr. finished a spectacular week with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

“All season, early on, I thought I did a good job, and I think just going into this game, I just allowed him to catch the ball where he really wanted to,” Bacot said of Burns. “When he gets it at that point, it’s really tough to guard him.”

Bacot had 11 rebounds to earn his 85th double-double, two off Tim Duncan’s ACC record over four seasons, and his 17th of the season.

State went on a 14–4 run to go up by 10 on a Mohamed Diarra 3-pointer 4½ minutes into the game. Both teams took six shots, with the Pack hitting five and UNC one.

Carolina later made five of six shots, with an Ingram 3-pointer slicing State’s lead to six with 10:17 left in the first half. RJ Davis scored 10 points and two 3-pointers in a 12–2 run to give UNC a two-point lead after his two free throws with 4:50 left in the first half.

Cormac Ryan gave UNC a 40–39 halftime lead on a 3-pointer with two seconds left.

An 11–3 Wolfpack run, including five points on Horne free throws, gave State a six-point lead on a Casey Morsell jumper with 15:32 left. A Horne 3 pushed State’s lead to eight with 8:57 left and then a Davis 3-pointer and jumper cut the lead to three. But Horne’s three-point play pushed it to eight with 7:04 left.

Horne capped an 11–4 run with a pair of free throws, ballooning State’s lead to 10 with 4:05 left. With 53 seconds left, Diarra, who has been fasting all week for Ramadan, made two free throws that all but put the game away.

NOTES — Burns, Bacot, Davis Horne and State’s Michael O’Connell made First Team All-Tournament. Making the second team were Diarra, Quinten Post of Boston College, Carlton Carrington and Ishmael Leggett of Pitt and Reece Beekman of Virginia. … N.C. State is the first college team to play five consecutive days to win a title since UConn won five games in a row to win the 2011 Big East title, with the last three victories over ranked teams currently in the ACC: No. 3 Pittsburgh, No. 11 Syracuse and No. 14 Louisville. Like N.C. State, the Huskies needed OT to win in the semifinals. … RJ Davis broke Justin Jackson’s single-season UNC 3-pointers record by making four to push his season total to 106. … Ryan went down holding his face with 12:22 left after running into the shoulder of O’Connell. … UNC has split its record 36 ACC tournament championship games appearances (18–18) and leads N.C. State 4–3. … Carolina leads the series with the Wolfpack 166–81. … UNC is 108–52 all-time in the ACC tournament, including 6–2 in MCI Center/Capital One Arena. … Carolina is 29–12 in ACC tournament games outside of North Carolina.

N.C. State 84, No. 4 UNC 76

ACC tournament

Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2 OTs
No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s second round
No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
No. 5 North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 56
No. 7 Stanford 78, California 73
No. 6 SMU 73, Syracuse 53
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 (and No. 1-ranked) Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
No. 2 (and No. 13-ranked) Louisville 75, Stanford 73
No. 3 (and No. 10-ranked) Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinals
Duke 72, North Carolina 71
Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Saturday’s championship
Duke 73, Louisville 62

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 9 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. East Tennessee State	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte