By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Terrence Hill Jr. felt he just wasn’t himself in the first half of Thursday night’s first round NCAA Tournament game.
When he returned after the break, he was nearly unstoppable.
Hill made a stepback 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in overtime and 11th-seeded VCU erased a 19-point, second-half deficit to stun sixth-seeded North Carolina 82-78 in the teams’ opener.
Hill finished 7 for 10 from 3-point range and scored 23 of his 34 points after halftime as VCU (28-7) won its first March Madness game since 2016.
“I know my team needs me down the stretch,” Hill said. “Going into the second half, I wanted to be as aggressive as possible. When the plays were there for me to make them, I was going to make them. And if my teammates were open, I was going to hit them.”
Nyk Lewis added 16 points, including two free throws in OT, to seal the game for the Rams, who pulled off the sixth-biggest comeback in tournament history and the second-largest second-half comeback, behind Nevada’s 22-point rally against Cincinnati in 2018.
VCU will face No. 3 seed Illinois, a 105-70 winner over No. 14 Penn, in the second round on Saturday.
“This game was the perfect microcosm of who this group has been,” VCU coach Phil Martelli Jr. said. “They’ve been resilient as much as any group I’ve ever been around. We’ve done it all year.”
Henri Veesaar had 26 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels (25-8), who went 0-3 after star Caleb Wilson was ruled out for the season with a broken thumb.
For the third time in the last four seasons, the Tar Heels failed to reach the Round of 32 under coach Hubert Davis.
“We had open looks. We had shots at the basket. We had executed plays,” Davis said. “And we missed eight free throws. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in.”
In overtime, Seth Trimble made 1 of 2 free throws with 35 seconds left to put the Tar Heels up 78-77.
But, Hill responded with a crucial 3 from beyond the top of the key to give VCU the lead for good at 80-78 lead.
Veesar was fouled with 4.2 seconds left, but missed the first of two free throws. With the second free throw essentially meaningless, he was forced to try to throw the ball off the rim. But, he missed the rim completely and VCU got the ball underneath the North Carolina basket.
Lewis was fouled and hit two free throws to ice the game.
“We weren’t playing as loose as we did the whole game,” Trimble said of his team’s play down the stretch.
North Carolina had built a 19-point lead with 15 minutes remaining in regulation largely behind Veesaar and Trimble before before VCU came storming back to tie it at 75 with 11 seconds left on a driving layup by Hill.
After the Tar Heels called a timeout, Veesaar lost the ball out of bounds in the frontcourt with 2.4 seconds left, giving VCU a chance to win. But Trimble stole the inbounds pass and had a chance to flip the script, but missed a running 3-point try at the buzzer, sending the game into OT.
VCU shot 62% from the field in the second half and was 7 of 10 from beyond the arc in the second half to force overtime.
VCU coach: Tar Heels started to tire late
Davis went to a six-man rotation in the second half and Martelli sensed the Tar Heels were starting to tire in the final four minutes.
“I did notice that,” Martelli said. “… A couple of shots that went short, I said, ‘we’ve got them right here.’ If we can just make a couple more shots, we’re going to have a shot.”
VCU got stronger down the stretch, making 15 of their final 19 shots in regulation to force overtime.
VCU center said he got mad after trash talk
VCU had no answer early for the 7-foot Veesaar in the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop. The Estonia native had 13 points and five rebounds in the first half as the Tar Heels built a 15-point lead. When Veesaar wasn’t scoring while rolling to the basket, he was making open 3s from the top of the key.
But, the big man seemed to tire as the game went on and mistakes followed. He finished with three turnovers.
“I’ve been talking to the big fella the whole game,” VCU center Lazar Djokovic said of Veesaar. “It kind of got me mad. I hit those back-to-back 3s, and from then on we smelled the blood. We see the look in their faces, and from then on, we just went on a run.”
It was an epic collapse for North Carolina
The Tar Heels are now 48-2 all-time in the tournament when leading by double digits at the half. The only other loss came in the 2022 championship against Kansas, when they led 40-25 but lost 72-69.
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