By Brian Murphy, WRAL

North Carolina had, improbably, erased nearly all of its 24-point deficit to top-seeded Duke. Now the Tar Heels were a single free throw away from tying the game with just 4.1 seconds remaining.

But before Ven-Allen Lubin could shoot his free throw, which he made, teammate Jae’Lyn Withers committed a clear lane violation. The violation wiped off the free throw, and Duke held on from a 74-71 victory in Friday’s ACC Tournament semifinal.

“I guess you could say I just mistimed the shot,” Withers told reporters after the game with his arm draped over coach Hubert Davis. “I was trying to crash hard to secure a rebound in case he did miss.”

The free throw would have tied the game at 72 and could have given the Tar Heels a chance to win the game in overtime with a defensive stop. Withers walked off the court with a towel over his head.

“The emotions following it was just a sense of, I’d say, disbelief initially,” Withers said. “But following that, of course, upset with the end result.”

UNC coach Hubert Davis insisted on standing alongside Withers as he addressed the media after the game.

“We win together,” Davis said. “We lose together. And the great thing about this group is we do it together. I didn’t think I could be more proud of the group than I was before this game. But I lied to them, I am.”

UNC teammates defended Withers after the game, pointing to his strong play over the last few weeks as North Carolina salvaged its season.

Withers scored in double figures in five of the last nine games entering Friday. He made a UNC-record seven 3-pointers in Wednesday’s victory over Notre Dame. On Thursday, he had nine points and nine rebounds against Wake Forest.

He scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting in 20 minutes against Duke.

“We are not here in this position without Jae’Lyn Withers and the way he’s been playing these last couple weeks,” UNC’s Seth Trimble said. “I told him to keep his head up.”

That was the message from Davis, too. UNC won eight of its last 10 and has put itself in the NCAA Tournament conversation ahead of Selection Sunday.

“We’re not here without J-Wit,” Davis said. “The run that we’ve made over the last month and a half, it’s because of our team, but you can also directly point to J-Wit and what he’s done for us on both ends of the floor. Just changed our team completely.”

Withers said it was hard to let the violation go in the immediate aftermath of the game.

“It’s rare, definitely rare,” Withers said. “Usually time it up pretty good.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com