Virginia overcomes halftime deficit to beat N.C. State, 76-56

Wahoos will play Florida State in the ACC semifinals

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Cavaliers dominated N.C. State in the second half of the quarterfinals of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament to stay alive.

Virginia beat N.C. State 76-56 Thursday afternoon in what was the 1-seed 'Hoos' first game of the tournament.

"When you play a team that has a game under their belt you have to be really ready so I'm not sure, I know we challenged our guys to be as ready as we could with that in our first game but NC State did a good job. We did some good things but we didn't make shots but Salt and Guy kept us in their until we got our footing so to speak," Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said.                    

UVA trailed 29-27 at the half but outscored the Wolfpack 49-27 to advance.

Virginia was led by junior guard Kyle Guy, who scored 29 points. Center Jack Salt pitched in with 18 points to dominate in the paint.

"I definitely felt - not pressure, but I needed to be a little more aggressive when Ty's shots were not falling but again he runs the show. He had 10 assists so even though he didn't shoot it well he did fine. Again 18 points from Jack we'll take that any day," Guy said.

"My teammates found me wide open. They were signaling help and they were being guarded by my man so they were just finding me so I was just getting easy looks at the rim," Salt said.

Virginia advances to play Florida State in Friday's first semifinal.

Tipoff for that game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.