THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE THREAD

Louisville spent eight long days recovering from a miserable home loss to Duke, giving Rick Pitino plenty of time to tinker and his players plenty of time to regroup.

Whatever tweaks the Hall of Fame coach made worked. Hitting shot after shot certainly helped. Terry Rozier scored 26 points and the 10th-ranked Cardinals pulled away from Pittsburgh 80-68 on Sunday.

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Jerian Grant got No. 8 Notre Dame back into the game with his scoring. He won it with his defense.

Grant scored 25 points and blocked a last-second shot in overtime that helped the Fighting Irish beat North Carolina State 81-78 on Sunday night.

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Just about everything worked for No. 13 North Carolina against Syracuse's zone defense -- once the Tar Heels stopped throwing the ball away.

Brice Johnson had 15 of his 17 points after halftime and UNC shot 55 percent to beat Syracuse 93-83 on Monday night.

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In a matchup of player of the year candidates, Jerian Grant made more clutch plays for eighth-ranked Notre Dame than Jahlil Okafor did for fourth-ranked Duke.

Grant finished with 23 points and 12 assists as the Irish rallied from 10 points down to win 77-73 on Wednesday night. And in the final 67 seconds, he hit a jumper just as the shot clock expired, fired a pass to a wide-open Steve Vasturia for a 3 from the corner (also as the shot clock expired) and blocked a layup attempt.

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Rick Pitino was back in Boston, and this time he was fortunate to have Chris Jones and Terry Rozier with him.

Jones scored 28 points and Rozier had 23 to lead Louisville to an 81-72 victory over Boston College on Wednesday night, giving Pitino a victory in his first game back in Boston since he stepped down from running the Celtics.

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Desperate for a win after a succession of narrow losses, Georgia Tech broke out with a blowout.

Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 24 points, and the Yellow Jackets earned their first Atlantic Coast Conference victory of the season by upsetting No. 23 Miami 70-50 on Wednesday night.

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Quinn Cook, Tyus Jones and No. 4 Duke got their biggest shots to start falling just in time.

Jones scored 17 points, Cook had 15 and both made critical 3-pointers in the closing minutes, fueling a game-ending 16-5 run that gave the Blue Devils a 69-63 victory against No. 2 Virginia, ending the Cavaliers' 21-game home winning streak.

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- Pittsburgh's James Robinson took an elbow to the face from a teammate, a shot to mouth from Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson and a metaphorical punch to the gut when the eighth-ranked Irish turned an eight-point deficit into a one-point lead with 31 seconds left on Saturday.

The junior guard responded with his typical toughness and a twisting runner that may have saved the Panthers' season.

Robinson sliced through the lane for the go-ahead basket with 12 seconds left to lift Pitt to a 76-72 win. Four days after his seeming clinching shot against Virginia Tech somehow morphed into a brutal overtime loss on the road, Robinson helped the Panthers improve to 14-3 all-time against Top 10 teams at the Petersen Events Center.

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A few weeks after North Carolina shocked Louisville by rallying from a double-digit deficit, the Cardinals returned the favor.

Montrezl Harrell scored 14 of his 22 points after halftime and No. 10 Louisville rallied from a 18-point second half deficit to beat No. 13 North Carolina 78-68 on Saturday night.

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Two of Florida State's leading scorers, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Devon Bookert, were blanketed by Miami's guards.

So Montay Brandon saw it as an opportunity. The junior had one of his best games of the season, scoring 18 points on 7-of-7 shooting, and Florida State rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to beat No. 23 Miami 55-54 on Sunday.

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Virginia responded to its first loss by sharpening its focus back on what had carried the third-ranked Cavaliers to their best start in three decades.

The result was an impressive road win against a highly ranked league opponent, the kind that proves -- if there was any question -- that Tony Bennett's veteran-led team isn't easily shaken.

Malcolm Brogdon scored 17 points and Virginia's defense locked up No. 12 North Carolina in the second half to win 75-64 on Monday night.

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Rick Pitino brought his Louisville Cardinals to Miami a day early for some sand, surf and shopping, and the fun continued when their game began Tuesday.

Led by Terry Rozier and Chris Jones, the No. 9-ranked Cardinals built an early 13-point lead and withstood a comeback bid by the Hurricanes in the second half to win 63-55.

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Mike Krzyzewski tore off his jacket, he slapped the floor, he gestured toward the crowd -- anything to spark his emotionally spent Duke players.

Then his lone scholarship senior got rolling and saved the fourth-ranked Blue Devils.

Quinn Cook scored all 17 of his points in the second half, and Duke beat Georgia Tech 72-66 on Wednesday night to give Krzyzewski his Atlantic Coast Conference-record 423rd league victory.

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It was a little too easy for No. 10 Notre Dame at the start of the game. It turned into a tough one at the very end.

Jerian Grant and Steve Vasturia scored 17 points apiece, and Notre Dame held off Boston College for a 71-63 victory on Wednesday night.

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Justise Winslow and Jahlil Okafor put the D back in Duke -- and ran Notre Dame off the floor.

Winslow had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and the fourth-ranked Blue Devils used a huge early run to rout No. 10 Notre Dame 90-60 on Saturday.

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Virginia couldn't have been much better on defense in the first half against No. 9 Louisville.

The way the third-ranked Cavaliers played it in the second half almost cost them the game.

Malcolm Brogdon scored 15 points for Virginia, which held the Cardinals scoreless for a stretch of 12 minutes spanning halftime, then had to withstand a furious rally for a 52-47 victory Saturday night that left both head coaches frustrated with their teams.

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A little lineup switch brought big inside scoring and helped No. 12 North Carolina overpower Boston College.

Isaiah Hicks scored a career-high 21 points in just his second start of the season, Brice Johnson had 20 with 10 rebounds and the Tar Heels beat the Eagles 79-68 on Saturday to snap a two-game losing streak.

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Malcolm Brogdon scored 15 points to help the Cavaliers hold off North Carolina State 51-47 on Wednesday night.

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Other than jumping out to a 29-0 lead against Savannah State earlier this season, No. 9 Louisville has rarely overwhelmed opponents with the game-changing effort on both ends of the floor.

That changed Wednesday night as junior forward Montrezl Harrell had 28 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, many of them during the Cardinals' 22-2 second half flurry that helped Louisville beat Pittsburgh 69-56.

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Malcolm Brogdon insists that No. 2 Virginia's offensive inconsistency isn't as big a deal as many seem to think.

The Cavaliers struggled to score for long stretches Monday night and had their defense to thank for keeping Pittsburgh at bay until the shots started falling, clearing the way for Virginia's fifth straight victory, 61-49 against the Panthers.

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