UNC outlasts Wake Forest after 40 minutes of elbows thrown, bodies falling, rushed shots, blocked shots, hard fouls and board crashing. The Tar Heels advance to meet No. 1 Duke on Friday night.

North Carolina beat Wake Forest 68-59 in a hard-fought battle in the ACCT quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals on Friday.

Despite going a span of nearly 10 minutes in the second half without a made basket, UNC beat Wake Forest in a physical ACC quarterfinal.

CHARLOTTE — Fifth-seeded UNC men's basketball (22-12, ACC 13-7) outlasted fourth-seeded Wake Forest (21-11, ACC 13-7), 68-59, on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at the Spectrum Center.

If the Duke Blue Devils want to be the No. 1 overall seed for next week’s NCAA Tournament, they need to convincingly win the ACC Tournament. That quest starts on Thursday.

The North Carolina Tar Heels took care of business on Wednesday afternoon in their ACC Tournament opener, blowing out Notre Dame. Going into Charlotte, the Tar Heels have to go on a big run to get into the NCAA Tournament and put themselves on the right side of the bubble.

North Carolina is either one of the last teams in the NCAA Tournament or one of the first teams out of the 68-team event. The Tar Heels' status seems to change daily with conference tournament results from across the nation pushing them up or down,