Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. North Carolina Tar Heels: Betting Preview, Stats

A couple of upsets Friday night in the ACC tournament semifinals have set up a surprising championship game on Saturday between the fifth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels and the third-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Tar Heels upset the top-seeded Virginia Cavaliers 71-67 as 4.5-point underdogs in the first semifinal to win their third straight and fifth in six games both straight up and against the spread.

In the second semifinal the Fighting Irish jumped out to a 41-26 halftime lead and held on for a 74-64 victory against the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils as 8.5-point underdogs on the college basketball betting lines.

Notre Dame is aiming for its first ACC championship, while North Carolina is going for its 18th conference tournament crown and first since 2008. The Fighting Irish beat Duke despite going more than five minutes without scoring a basket late in the game.

However, Notre Dame came up large in the final two minutes when it mattered the most, as Pat Connaughton finally ended the drought and then the team forced the Blue Devils into a turnover and a missed three-pointer before letting free throws decide the final margin.

The Fighting Irish also enjoyed a bit of luck in their only meeting with the Tar Heels back on January 5, turning in a similar effort as their performance against Duke. Notre Dame blew an 11-point lead at North Carolina but still managed to pull off a 71-70 win as eight-point underdogs at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

Connaughton scored a game-high 16 points in that last meeting with four three-pointers. Notre Dame had lost each of the previous three meetings with the Tar Heels.

North Carolina will try to stop a Notre Dame team that has won seven of eight SU with a 6-2 ATS mark by continuing to play stellar defense. The Tar Heels held Virginia to just 23 points in the first half and shot 55 percent from the field overall to defeat consecutive higher-seeded teams in the ACC tournament for the first time in school history.

North Carolina has appeared in the conference title game in three of the past four years but lost each time. The last three meetings between the teams have all gone under the total, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database.