Thursday ACC Basketball: The Tar Heel Exacta

HARRIS (Lance King)

North Carolina won at Clemson while rival Duke lost at Virginia. The Cavs win over the #3 Blue Devils marked the nineteenth time this season an unranked team has defeated a top five opponent.

VIRGINIA 73, #3 DUKE 68 - Polishing their NCAA tournament resume, Virginia celebrated the 11-year anniversary of its last victory over a top 5 team by doing it again.

Oh, and Joe Harris scored a career-high 36 points. as Duke never led.

Akil Mitchell added 19 points and 12 rebounds as he and Harris outplayed Duke's top twosome of Seth Curry and Mason Plumlee, giving Virginia (20-8, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) its 16th consecutive victory at home. It came 11 years to the day since an 87-84 victory, also against No. 3 Duke.

Curry led Duke with 28 points, all but five coming after halftime, and Quinn Cook had 22, but the Blue Devils (24-4, 11-4) failed to slow down either Harris or Mitchell, whose dominating play kept a sellout crowd giddy all night. Plumlee finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three turnovers and several times looked up to see Mitchell dunking over him.

STRICKLAND (Ethan Hyman/Raleigh News & Observer)

NORTH CAROLINA 68, CLEMSON 59 - It wasn’t as close as the score looks as poor end-game  free throw shooting allows the Tigers to close a big gap (17 points).

Dexter Strickland tied his season high with 16 points.

The Tar Heels (20-8, 10-5 ACC) won a season-high fourth straight in league play and took their 15th in the past 16 games with the Tigers (13-14, 5-10). Strickland led all five North Carolina starters in double figures. Reggie Bullock added 12 points and nine rebounds, while James Michael McAdoo and P.J. Hairston had 11 points each. Marcus Paige scored 10.

Devin Booker had 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Tigers, who lost their third straight and for the sixth time in the past seven games. Milton Jennings also had a double-double for Clemson with 12 points and 10 rebounds.