Robinson had 15 of his 17 points in the first half, a day after he scored 24 points in an upset of Maryland. Hamilton added 16 and Sharrod Ford finished with 15 for the Tigers.

“Basically, we just played hard for 37 minutes, and the last 3 minutes, they went on that run and we couldn’t hold them off,” Ford said.

McCants, May and Jawad Williams all had 13 for the Tar Heels, who will meet Georgia Tech in the semifinals Saturday. The Yellow Jackets beat Virginia Tech 73-54.

North Carolina seemingly locked up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament with a dramatic victory over Duke earlier in the week, which wrapped up its first outright regular-season title since 1993. But Clemson, playing inspired basketball in the last couple of weeks to win four of its previous five games, gave the Tar Heels all they could handle.

“You never have doubt,” North Carolina forward Marvin Williams said. “You’ve just got to keep fighting. You’ve got to be ready, because really good teams are not going to let you come back from 13 down.”

The Tigers led throughout most of the second half, holding North Carolina to only one basket during one 8-minute span. When Ford made a free throw with 9:20 remaining, they led 71-58. Williams snapped the Tar Heels’ drought with a three-point play, and McCants swished two 3s in a matter of seconds to start the comeback, and Felton finished it off.

“We definitely tightened up,” Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. “We turned it over in the frontcourt, we turned it over in the backcourt and we didn’t take real good shots.”

The Tar Heels were helped by a school-record effort at the free-throw line for the ACC tournament. They finished 37-of-47, two more than they made in 1956, while the Tigers were 20-of-29.

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