Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen (0) celebrates as the last seconds tick off the clock in the Hokies' 74-70 victory over North Carolina on Thursday night.

Virginia Tech's Terrell Bell and UNC's Will Graves get tangled up during Thursday's game.

JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech forward Terrell Bell (1) scored six points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds in the victory.

BLACKSBURG -- This time, the script had a different ending.

With his team trailing Virginia Tech by four points with 22 seconds to go, North Carolina's Will Graves put up a 3-pointer.

The ball spun around the rim and went out. Tech's Jeff Allen got the rebound, and the Hokies went on to beat UNC 74-70 on Thursday night at Cassell Coliseum.

"It was nice to play these guys finally and not see a ball go in at the end," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said after the game.

The Hokies (17-4, 4-3 ACC) had lost to UNC five straight times. The streak included a 2008 ACC Tournament loss in which Tyler Hansbrough scored the winning basket with eight-tenths of a second left, as well as a loss in last year's ACC Tournament in which Hansbrough made the go-ahead jumper with 36.1 seconds left.

"When Graves' ball was spinning around, spinning around, if history was going to repeat itself, it was going to end up going in," Greenberg said. "But it didn't, and we got a loose ball.

"I thought we were a determined group."

North Carolina (13-9, 2-5), which had 19 turnovers to Tech's 10, lost for the fifth time in six games.

Hansbrough and three other starters from last year's NCAA championship team have moved on from UNC, but Thursday's win was still meaningful to the Hokies.

"It's North Carolina, man," Greenberg said. "They don't even retire numbers unless you're like the [national] player of the year.

"This team beat Michigan State. They played Texas right down to the wire. They've got [seven] McDonald's All-Americans. Yeah, it's a big win. It's a good program win. It validates a little bit of what we're doing.

"It was good for our team, it was good for our program, it was good for our fans. It was good for me, I'm not going to lie to you. It was a chance to breathe. I haven't had a whole lot of opportunities to breathe in the last 3 ¹₂ days."

Greenberg's wife, Karen, did not attend the game. She was released from the hospital earlier Thursday after being hospitalized for several days with a chest infection.

"We just wanted to come out here and play hard and dedicate the game to Mrs. Greenberg," Tech guard Dorenzo Hudson said.

The only current Tech player who had beaten UNC before Thursday was senior reserve Lewis Witcher, who started in both of the team's 2007 wins over the Tar Heels.

Hudson and the other four juniors who had been 0-5 against UNC all delivered Thursday. Malcolm Delaney scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half. Hudson had 17 points and did a good job guarding Graves. J.T. Thompson had eight points and six rebounds, while Terrell Bell had six points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Allen had 14 points and seven rebounds, as well as four of Tech's eight steals.

"Allen was so good and so tough and so physical, getting to the rim and finishing," Greenberg said.

Freshman point guard Erick Green also played well, with just one turnover in 21 minutes.

Tech was outrebounded 27-15 in the first half but outrebounded UNC 21-13 in the second half.

"The key in the second half was that we had a couple of silly, unforced turnovers, and they really hurt us on the backboards," UNC coach Roy Williams said.

In last month's meeting, UNC trailed 38-34 at halftime but won 78-64. This time, UNC erased a 12-point first-half deficit and led 35-33 at halftime.

A furious Greenberg scolded his charges at halftime about their defense and rebounding.

"I said, ... 'We're not going to have a repeat of what happened up there. We're going to 100 percent commit to each other in the next 20 minutes and play with a sense of toughness,' " Greenberg said. "That's what we did."

Tech's transition defense improved in the second half.

"We played a 40-minute game," Hudson said. "In Chapel Hill, we only played 20."

But will the Hokies have fresh enough legs to beat visiting Clemson today? The 4 p.m. game will tip off just 41 hours after Thursday's game ended.

"We're not going to use fatigue, we're not going to use the turnaround game, as an excuse," Greenberg said. "Other teams in our league -- not everyone -- but other teams in our league play them. The Big East, they play them all the time; they go Saturday-Monday all the time."

Clemson, a quick team that employs pressure defense, has not played a game since beating Maryland on Sunday.

"We're not going to build that in as an excuse," Greenberg said. "They're practicing every day."

NORTH CAROLINA (13-9)

Strickland 0-2 1-2 1, Drew II 3-7 2-2 9, Graves 1-7 2-2 4, Thompson 3-7 2-5 8, Davis 4-7 7-11 15, Ginyard 2-7 1-2 6, McDonald 0-0 0-0 0, Henson 5-6 4-4 14, D.Wear 5-7 0-0 12, T.Wear 0-3 1-2 1. Totals 23-53 20-30 70.

VIRGINIA TECH (17-4)

Hudson 6-13 3-3 17, Delaney 6-17 7-7 21, Allen 4-14 6-9 14, Bell 2-6 2-3 6, Davila 3-4 0-0 6, Raines 1-1 0-0 2, Green 0-5 0-0 0, Witcher 0-1 0-0 0, Atkins 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 4-6 0-0 8. Totals 26-67 18-22 74.

Halftime--North Carolina 35-33. 3-Point Goals--North Carolina 4-15 (D.Wear 2-3, Drew II 1-3, Ginyard 1-4, Henson 0-1, Graves 0-4), Virginia Tech 4-19 (Hudson 2-5, Delaney 2-9, Allen 0-1, Bell 0-1, Green 0-3). Fouled Out--Thompson. Rebounds--North Carolina 40 (Davis, Strickland 7), Virginia Tech 36 (Bell 11). Assists--North Carolina 12 (Drew II 6), Virginia Tech 16 (Delaney 5). Total Fouls--North Carolina 19, Virginia Tech 24. A--9,847.