NCAA Basketball Betting – Tigers vs Tar Heels
A red-hot No. 8 North Carolina Tar Heels are aiming to take sole possession of first place in the ACC with win over the visiting Clemson Tigers on Saturday evening, who have struggled all season long, but are coming of a huge upset over No. 22 Virginia on Valentine’s Day.
Date/Time: Sat, Feb 18, 2012, 4:00PM ET
Venue: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Broadcast: ESPN
Spread: UNC -12.5
Over/Under: 143
Clemson has won just two of its last five, but the Tigers turned it up a notch at home and surprised the Cavaliers, 60-48, in ACC action.
The Tigers played the Cavaliers earlier this season, and lost that game 65-6, but this time came out firing on all five cylinders dominating Virginia in offensive rebounding and also coming out on top in turnover margin..
Clemson capitalize on the Cavs’ 18 turnovers with Tanner Smith and Andre Young leading the offensive charge, each with 13 points.
It was a complete turnaround for a Tigers team that prior to this game, played 26 Top 25 opponents in the last 5 seasons with a record of 6-20.
The win moved the Tigers to over .500 as they are now 13-12, in what is usually the toughest part of the season. With their record improving to 5-6 in the ACC, they remain tied for 7th place in the ACC with Maryland. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels collected 16 points from free throws while making the most of 14 Miami turnovers, beating the Hurricanes on the road, 73-64 in conference play on Wednesday.
On the road, the Tar Heels play well, and with this win, sweep over the Hurricanes this year.
Leading scorer Harrison Barnes put up the most points against the Hurricanes with 23 on 47 percent shooting from the floor in 32 minutes, and John Henson was a factor with a game-leading 11 rebounds.
It was Henson’s fourth straight double-digit rebound game.
The Tar Heels are now 22-4, as they improve to 9-2 and remain in a battle with Duke for 1st place in the ACC.
Harrison Barnes has 9 straight double-digit point games and has led the T-Heels in scoring in 14 out of 26 games this season
Clemson will have their hands full with Barnes but will also need their bigs to come up big against two of the ACC’s top rebounders — Henson and Tyler Zeller– who are accounting for nearly 50 percent of the Tar Heels rebounding
Free Pick: UConn
