2026 ACC Tournament: Duke wins back-to-back ACC Championships

Scenes from the court as Duke prepared to take on Clemson on Friday night in an ACC Tournament semifinal.

No. 2 seed Virginia had no problem handling Miami in the first ACC Tournament semifinal, winning 84-62 on Friday night.

Ugonna Onyenso scored 17 points to go along with four blocks and Thijs De Ridder and Sam Lewis added 16 points for the Cavaliers, who await the winner of Duke vs. Clemson.

• Box Score

Tru Washington led the Hurricanes with 13 points off the bench. Shelton Henderson added 12.

This story will be updated.

Download the ABC11 News app

Syracuse University has hired Bryan Blair as its athletic director at a time when the ACC school is searching to regain relevance and with its once-proud men's basketball program in transition.

The 40-year-old Blair takes over after spending the past four years holding the same job at Toledo, where in 2022 he was the nation's youngest AD. And Syracuse is counting on Blair's youth and familiarity with the NCAA's changing revenue landscape to guide Orange athletics into the future. Blair replaces John Wildhack, who had previously announced he was retiring in July following a 10-year tenure. One of Wildhack's final decisions was firing men's basketball coach Adrian Autry on Wednesday.

And at Pitt, the school announced that Jeff Capel is sticking around as head coach.

Athletic director Allen Greene announced Friday that Capel will be back for a ninth season despite a disappointing 13-20 mark this year that ended with a 98-88 loss to N.C. State in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

"I believe our best path forward is leadership continuity paired with clear expectations and a willingness to evolve," Greene said in a statement.

Capel, who has four years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, is 127-127 at Pitt. The Panthers have made the NCAA tournament just once during Capel's tenure, when the 2022-23 team won 24 games and advanced to the second round.

Pitt narrowly missed the tournament in 2024 and saw a 12-2 start to the 2024-25 season turn into a sluggish 17-15 finish. Things weren't any better this winter, leading to a dwindling of fan support and speculation about Capel's job security.

Greene put that speculation to rest, for now anyway. He pointed to the way the Panthers played down the stretch while winning four of their final seven games as proof that all is not lost.

"They fought until the end and represented this university with toughness," Greene said. "Effort alone is not enough. We must be better going forward. I know it. Jeff knows it."

The 51-year-old Capel was hired away from Mike Krzyzewski's staff at Duke in 2018 to turn around a program left in tatters after Kevin Stallings' ugly two-year stint that included going winless in the ACC in Stallings' final season.

-- The Associated Press contributed.

A furious rally from an 18-point deficit came up just short as No. 19 North Carolina fell 80-79 on Thursday night to Clemson in an ACC quarterfinal thriller.

Nick Davidson scored 17 points as the fifth-seeded Tigers watched a large second-half lead evaporate before holding on to beat the fourth-seeded Tar Heels.

• Box Score

Dillon Hunter had 14 points and went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final minute for the Tigers (24-9), who had six players finish in double figures in scoring.

Henri Veesaar had a mammoth game for the Tar Heels with 28 points and 17 rebounds, while Derek Dixon finished with 16 points, including three late 3s to help North Carolina (24-8) climb back into the game.

The Tigers seemed ready to cruise into the semifinals after building an 18-point lead with 11:36 left before the Tar Heels came storming back to cut the lead to 78-76 with 13 seconds left behind a barrage of 3-pointers from Veesaar and Dixon.

Hunter made two free throws with 11.1 seconds left to make it a two-possession game before Dixon added yet another 3 with 3 seconds left.

The Tar Heels fouled Davidson, who missed both free throws with 2.4 seconds. North Carolina's Jarin Stevenson grabbed the rebound, but with the Tar Heels out of timeouts, he was forced to heave the ball from three-quarters court, and it fell well short.

Clemson shot 9 of 19 from beyond the 3-point line, with Davidson a perfect 4-for-4.

The Tar Heels struggled to hit shots all night until the 3s started falling late. Dixon made three 3s and Veesaar two in the final 2:28.

Clemson moves on to Friday night's semifinals against No. 1 Duke, which beat Florida State 80-79 after the Seminoles missed a 3-pointer to win it at the buzzer.

The Associated Press contributed.