Morsell’s big game powers NC State

Casey Morsell scored 25 points, Jayden Taylor had 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals and No. 10 seed North Carolina State beat No. 15 seed Louisville 94-85 on Tuesday night in the first round of the ACC Tournament, spoiling a 36-point performance by Skyy Clark.

N.C. State (18-14) advances to play No. 7 seed Syracuse in the second round tonight. The Wolfpack lost both regular-season meetings with the Orange, 77-65 on the road and 87-83 at home.

Clark made a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions to tie it at 75 with 4:50 to go and set a career-high in scoring with 30. But Taylor answered with two straight makes from distance to give N.C. State an 81-77 lead.

N.C. State made 11 free throws in the final three minutes to seal it.

Clark finished 12-of-17 shooting, including 7 of 9 from 3-point range, for Louisville (8-24).

Notre Dame 84, Georgia Tech 80:

Freshmen Braeden Shrewsberry and Markus Burton combined for 44 points and 12th-seeded Notre Dame opened the tournament with its third straight nail-biting win over 13th-seeded Georgia Tech.

Shrewsberry had 23 points with five 3-pointers and Burton added 21 with eight assists as the Fighting Irish (13-19) advanced to face fifth-seeded Wake Forest despite blowing a 17-point lead in the final 13 minutes.

Tae Davis added 12 points and Kebba Njie had 11 with nine rebounds for Notre Dame, which beat the Yellow Jackets 58-55 at home and 75-68 in overtime on the road.

Naithan George had five 3s and scored 24 points with seven assists for Georgia Tech (14-18).

Today’s second-round games (All games at Capital One Arena, Washington)

#8 Virginia Tech vs. #9 Florida State, noon

#5 Wake Forest vs. #12 Notre Dame, 2:30 p.m. #7Syracusevs.#10N.C.State,7p.m. #6 Clemson vs. BC-Miami winner, 9:30 p.m.