Wake Forest, losers in eight of its previous nine games, upset Duke on the Deacons’ final home game,
Duke melted down in the last six minutes or so as the Blue Devils went five of those minutes without scoring a field goal. Wake Forest went on a 17-0 run that saw the Deacs go from seven down to 10 ahead at 76-66.
During one stretch late Duke turned the ball over four times, missed four threes and missed a layup.
Wake Forest was led by sophomore Tyler Cavanaugh with 20 points while senior Travis McKie scored 19. Jabari Parker, who was saddled with foul trouble, led Duke with 19 points.
Duke concludes the regular season Saturday night by hosting UNC. The Blue Devils need a win to tie the Tar Heels for third place.
Andrei Loktionov.The Carolina Hurricanes today announced that the team has acquired center Andrei Loktionov (ahn-DRAY lawk-too-OH-nawf) and a conditional draft pick from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for forward Tuomo Ruutu.
“Andrei is a young, skilled forward who will play on our power play,” said Jim Rutherford, Canes President and General Manager. “Tuomo was a good player for the Hurricanes and we thank him for his contributions to our organization over the past seven years.”
Loktionov, 23, has totaled four goals and eight assists (12 points) in 48 games with New Jersey during his first full NHL season.
The Hurricanes save a huge amount of cap hit (up to $4 million) while acquiring a younger player who fits the team while also tacking on an above-median draft pick as well.
Loktionov, a Voskresensk, Russia native, made his NHL debut for Los Angeles during the 2009-10 season before suffering a shoulder injury. He returned to action the following year, and was a member of the Kings’ Stanley Cup Championship team in 2011-12. Los Angeles’ seventh pick, 123rd overall, in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, Loktionov (5’10”, 180 lbs.) has totaled 38 points (19g, 19a) and 20 penalty minutes in 135 career games with Los Angeles and New Jersey. His career statistics are below.
The Hurricanes return to Raleigh today and host the New York Rangers at PNC Arena on Friday (7 p.m., SportSouth, Hurricanes Radio Network).
Tricia Liston.GREENSBORO – The 2013-14 All-ACC Women’s Basketball Team as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel was announced Tuesday by Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford.
An All-ACC First Team and an All-ACC Second Team were voted on by the league’s Blue Ribbon Panel, which consists of national and local media members, as well as school representatives.
Unbeaten Notre Dame, which will enter this week’s ACC Women’s Tournament as the No. 1 seed, led the way with three total selections. The Fighting Irish guard tandem of senior Kayla McBride and sophomore Jewel Loyd were voted to the first team, while senior forward Natalie Achonwa is a second-team honoree.
Four first-team players from last season are repeat selections this year in two-time ACC Player of the Year Alyssa Thomas of Maryland, Duke junior Elizabeth Williams, Florida State senior Natasha Howard and Georgia Tech senior Tyaunna Marshall. Duke’s Trisha Liston, a second-team selection in 2013, was named to this year’s All-ACC first team.
Rounding out the 10-member first team are North Carolina freshman Diamond DeShields, NC State senior Markeisha Gatling and Wake Forest junior Dearica Hamby.
Joining Notre Dame’s Achonwa on the second team are NC State senior Kody Burke, Georgia Tech freshman Kaela Davis, Syracuse sophomore Brittney Sykes and Virginia Tech senior Uju Ugoka.
Loyd leads Notre Dame in scoring at 18.4 points per game, while McBride averages 17.7 points per game while shooting 87.4 percent from the foul line and is handing out 3.9 assists per contests.
Wake Forest’s Hamby closed the regular season leading the ACC in both scoring (21.7 ppg) and in rebounding (10.9). Maryland’s Thomas ranks fourth among ACC scorers at 18.7 points per game and is just behind Hamby among leading rebounders at 10.8.
Duke’s Williams is scoring at a 13.9 ppg clip while pulling down 7.3 rebounds per game and leading all shot blockers with 2.9 per outing. Liston leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 17.9 points per game while shooting an ACC-leading 50 percent from 3-point range (79-of-158).
Florida State’s Howard’s 20.6 points per game rank second in the conference, and she is fourth in rebounding at 9.1 per game. Georgia Tech’s Marshall is third in scoring at 19.7 ppg and ranks second in steals at 2.6 per contest
North Carolina’s DeShields emerged as an immediate contributor for the Tar Heels, scoring 17.7 points per game. NC State’s Gatling leads the ACC in field goal percentage at 67.7 percent while scoring 19.2 points per game.
Notre Dame’s Achonwa earned second team honors after averaging 14.7 points per game and grabbing 7.7 rebound per contest during the regular season. NC State’s Burke averages 15.1 points per game and ranks among the ACC’s leading free-throw shooters at 86.4 percent. Georgia Tech’s Davis is sixth in the ACC in scoring (18.4 ppg) and ranks fifth in made 3-point shots (76).
Syracuse’s Sykes averages 17.1 ppg while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor. Virginia Tech’s Ugoka ranks ninth among ACC scorers at 18.3 ppg and third among rebounders with 9.5 per contest.
UNC’s DeShields and Georgia Tech’s Davis were also voted to the Blue Ribbon Panel’s ACC All-Freshman Team announced on Tuesday. They are joined by Maryland’s Lexie Brown, North Carolina’s Allisha Gray and Miami’s Adrienne Motley.
Brown played a key role in the Terrapins’ backcourt her freshman year, ranking fifth among all ACC players in assists with 4.3 per game and ranking second in assist/turnover ratio at 2.1. UNC’s Gray averages 14.4 ppg and ranks fourth in ACC 3-point shooting at 41.9 percent. Miami’s Motley leads the Hurricanes in scoring at 10.9 ppg and in assists at 2.6 per contest.
The ACC will announce its Player, Freshman and Coach of the Year as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Wednesday, March 5. The Defensive and Sixth Player of Year will also be announced that same day.
The 37th Annual ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament tips off at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 5, and will conclude with the 7 p.m. championship contest on Sunday, March 9. The title game will be televised on ESPN, and Saturday’s 5 p.m and 7:30 p.m. semifinal games will be shown nationally via ESPNU. All 11 games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be broadcast on the league’s regional sports network (RSN). The entire tournament can also be seen on ESPN3 and WatchESPN.
Blue Ribbon Panel All-ACC Team
First Team All-ACC
Diamond DeShields, Fr., G, North Carolina
Markeisha Gatling, Sr., C, NC State
Dearica Hamby, Jr., F, Wake Forest
Natasha Howard, Sr., F, Florida State
Tricia Liston, Sr., G, Duke
Jewell Loyd, So., G, Notre Dame
Tyaunna Marshall, Sr., G, Georgia Tech
Kayla McBride, Sr., G, Notre Dame
Alyssa Thomas, Sr., F, Maryland
Elizabeth Williams, Jr., C/F, Duke
TJ Warren.TJ Warren can carry a team and NC State needed carrying as the Pack seeks an NCAA tournament bid. Warren scored a career-high 41 points to lead State over Pittsburgh 74-67 on the road.
“Phenomenal,” Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said of Warren’s performance. “We’re not dead yet.”
Warren scored 26 points in the second half including 12 points during a 17-3 run that saw the Pack go from nine down to five ahead.
A driving layup by Warren tied it at 44 and a floater in the lane with 13:04 left put State on top 48-46 for the first lead change of the game.
Pitt cut the margin to one several times but never could tie or take the lead the rest of the way. With State ahead just 69-67 with more than two minutes to play, Warren fittingly scored four of the last five points of the game.
“He made so many shots one after another and the other guys recognized that,” Gottfried said. “It was still a great team win because so many guys did so many things.”
State, now 18-12 overall and 8-9 in the ACC, turned the ball over just six times and outrebounded Pitt 35-23.
The last Wolfpack player to score 40 or more points was Rodney Monroe in 1991.
North Carolina, up by 14 at the half, went cold in the second half just when Notre Dame was getting hot but a 7-0 run late righted the ship as the Tar Heels won their 12th straight game on Senior Night 63-61. (3/3)
Carolina, which led by as many as 15 points in the first half, managed just two baskets in the first 10 minutes of the second half. On the other side, Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton came out hot hitting his first four shots of the second half, including a three-point shot and an old-fashioned three-point play.
After a three by Steve Vasturia, Notre Dame took the lead for the first time in the game at 47-46 with 14:14 left in the game.
Over the next eight minutes, neither team did much combining for just seven points as the game was tied at 50 with 6:12 to go. That served Notre Dame’s deliberate style.
Vasturia, who had fouled Nate Britt hard minutes earlier, scored on a layup with 3:57 left to put the Irish on top 56-54 amid boos from the Carolina crowd.
Over the next two and a half minutes, the Tar Heels went on an 7-0 run. James Michael McAdoo hit one of two free throws to start the run. He continued it with a big shot in the lane to put the Heels up for good at 57-56.
UNC’s Brice Johnson scored on a reverse layup to give the Heels a 59-56. He was fouled and had a chance to make it a two-possession game with just 2:25 left but he missed the foul shot.
After a Vasturia miss, Carolina ate some clock and scored on a JP Tokoto short jumper late in the shot clock to put the Heels up 61-56 with 1:24 left.
The Tar Heels couldn’t quite put it away as their best free throw shooter Marcus Paige missed two of four. As a result, Notre Dame’s Eric Atkins, who led the Irish with 21 points, had a chance to tie it with a driving layup at the buzzer but Paige blocked the shot and the Tar Heels escaped with the victory.
Mark Gottfried.NC State basketball coach Mark Gottfried will be the speaker at the Wednesday, March 5 meeting of the Raleigh Sports Club. Coach Gottfried will discuss the Wolfpack’s basketball season and overall program.
The RSC will honor local Wake County student athlete Lauren Panella, a softball player at Middle Creek High School, for outstanding achievement in the classroom, community and on the field.
Meetings are held in Bradley Hall in Highland UMC, 1901 Ridge Road at the intersection of Lake Boone Trail, just inside the Raleigh Beltline. Buffet lines open at 11:30 a.m. and the meeting starts at 12 noon. See http://www.raleighsportsclub.org/ for details.
Renada Davis.NC State shortstop Renada Davis has been named this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Player of the Week.
Davis led the Wolfpack at the plate in the last four games, as she hit .462 in those contests with six hits, three home runs and seven RBI. Davis homered twice in the 15-0 rout of St. Bonaventure to record her first multi-homer game of the season.
She hit home runs in consecutive plate appearances, as she blasted a solo shot in the second inning and a two-run homer in the fourth inning. Her final RBI of the contest came in the fifth inning on a single to left field.
In game one of the Virginia series, Davis picked right up where she left off on Tuesday, hitting a solo homer over the fence in right center on the second pitch of the game. She later singled in the game to drive in her second run of the game.
Davis doubled in the second game of the doubleheader to extend her hit streak to seven games, before having it snapped in the final game of the series on Sunday.
Nick Gwiazdowski.Pitt, which was unbeaten this year in Atlantic Coast Conference dual meets to capture the regular season ACC title, heads into this Saturday’s ACC Wrestling Championship looking to fend off challenges by 12th-ranked Virginia and 16th-ranked Virginia Tech to claim its first ACC Championship of any kind.
In addition to an ACC title, the wrestlers will be competing for a total of 34 qualifier allocations for 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championship, which will be held March 20-22 in Oklahoma City, Okla.
NC State sophomore Nick Gwiazdowski (Delanson, N.Y.) is rated as the nation’s No. 3 wrestler in the heavyweight division after posting a 35-2 dual match record including an overtime win over the nation’s top-ranked heavyweight, Michael McMullan of Northwestern. Gwiazdowski will also face competition in the ACC Tournament from two other nationally-ranked wrestlers in his own division in Myers of Maryland and Pitt’s Tasser. The Wolfpack of coach Pat Popolizio also feature freshman Pete Renda (Topton, Pa.), who is ranked 19th nationally in the 174-pound weight class.
North Carolina, coached by former national champion C.D. Mock, is led by Henderson and 125-pound sophomore Nathan Kraisser (Ellicott City, Md.), who is ranked 17th nationally in his weight class and who reached the finals of the ACC Tournament last year before losing.
Duke, coached by Glen Lanham, is led by 197-pound sophomore Connor Hartmann (Port Orchard, Wash.) who is ranked 20th by the Division I Coaches Ranking Panel and has posted a 22-8 record, and 157-pound junior Immanuel Kerr-Brown (Rome, Ga.), who is 22-10 overall on the year, and 5-1 in ACC dual meet competition, and is rated 24th nationally by the same panel.
Roy Williams.North Carolina scrapped out a 60-56 win against a deliberate Virginia Tech team to give the Tar Heels their 11th straight victory.
The Tar Heels held the lead most of the way and while the game result rarely seemed in danger, they couldn’t pull away either. Poor foul shooting ensured that.
Carolina missed seven second-half free throws including five in the last minute and a half as Virginia Tech made it iffy at the end. Leslie McDonald hit the second of two free throws with 4.8 seconds left to wrap up the win.
“I screamed at Leslie for him to hit the free throw,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “That was very intelligent.”
But he was frustrated that the Virginia Tech zone defense bothered his club throughout and his players couldn’t seem to hit free throws down the stretch.
“It was a workmanlike effort for us,” Williams said, praising James Michael McAdoo’s second half effort.
McAdoo scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half including eight during a four-minute stretch late.
A power dunk by McAdoo with 6:56 left put the Heels up by nine, their largest lead of the game, at 49-40.
Marcus Paige.North Carolina had it, lost it and thanks to Marcus Paige got it back again as the Tar Heels defeated NC State 85-84 in overtime.
More precisely, it was Paige outdueling State’s TJ Warren as the two went back and forth in the second half, especially late in the game and in overtime.
Warren, who scored 36 points, calmly canned two free throws at the end of regulation. Paige, who scored a career-high 35 points, drove to the hoop to score the winning bucket with less than a second to go in overtime.
“I felt like we gave one away and then at the end stole one,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.
The Tar Heels trailed by eight, 34-26, at the half – a half that saw Paige score just four points. But Paige proceeded to drain seven threes in the second half including back-to-back ones that drew Carolina to within a point at 52-51.
A driving lay-in by JP Tokoto with seven minutes to go put UNC up for the first time since it was 5-4 early.
But the lead went back and forth the rest of the way until it appeared the Tar Heels had a good chance to win it in regulation. Paige hit two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to put the Heels up 71-69.
After UNC’s Leslie McDonald knocked the inbounds pass out of bounds, State had but 1.5 seconds to score from the opposite end of the court. Before the ball was inbounded, however, McDonald fouled Warren, who hit the free throws to force overtime.
“I felt like we had the game won and then we made one of the silliest fouls I’ve ever seen,” Williams said.
A couple of minutes later it was the Pack’s turn to feel like they had it won up by six at 77-71 with three minutes left and 80-74 with two minutes left. They were up again by six with 1:39 left following a Warren bank shot which made it 82-76.
Paige hit a three and a pair of free throws to make it 83-81 State with just 41 seconds left.
Warren turned the ball over against Carolina’s full-court pressure. After an official timeout to review the play, James Michael McAdoo scored inside on a set play to tie it at 83-all with 31 seconds left.
McAdoo fouled Warren along the baseline with less than eight seconds left but Warren hit only one to put State up 84-83. That led to Paige’s heroics as he drove the left side of the lane for a contested layup.
“I loved our effort,” State coach Mark Gottfried said. “I loved our competitiveness. I hurt for our guys right now because I thought they laid it all on the line.”
A near giddy Paige was very excited in the locker room, stating that he wasn’t going to sleep. “To kind of shut the fans up was very satisfying,” he said.
Wake Forest, losers in eight of its previous nine games, upset Duke on the Deacons’ final home game, 
