Here is the latest North Carolina sports from The AP — Sports Minute

On Saturday the top-ranked Tigers beat No. 10 North Carolina 45-37 to win the ACC championship and punch their tickets to the College Football Playoff.

Despite trailing by as many as 19 in the second half, UNC made it a one-score game with 1:13 to play on a Williams touchdown pass to Ryan Switzer. There was no blue-clad player offside, robbing the Heels of a chance to go and tie up the game. If Williams avoids the turnovers, the Tar Heels can score with anybody. “And so everything’s here, everything that we need”. But there was a flag.

“It sucks”, Switzer said. We executed correctly, we recovered the ball.

“We’ve got three top 10 wins”. “He makes mistakes, but you’re going to have to beat him”. But it didn’t help the Tar Heels, either. The late hit, along with a facemask penalty kept the first Tar Heels drive alive, allowing the Heels to take a 3-0 lead. He’d seen a replay of the play, too, before he met with a roomful of reporters.

Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora said that with three timeouts and the ball near midfield with 1:08 left on the clock, he was confident North Carolina could have scored and had a chance at a 2-point conversion to send the game into overtime.

Q: It is 100 percent definitive, though, that they got the call wrong? But the idea of a lost opportunity weighed heavily during postgame interviews. About the haunting thought of “what if?” “But I feel like I’m one of the best in the country, and that’s because of the players I have with me and the coaching staff I have in this program”.

Clemson racked up a conference championship game record 608 yards, eclipsing the 500-yard mark for the ninth consecutive game. “They’ve got a rock that they can rely on, and I think he makes it extremely hard for a defense”. “It was quite the chess match with the blitz schemes today”.

No matter what, Clemson won the game.

But Clemson drove 68 yards for a touchdown with just two seconds remaining in the first half, reclaiming a lead it would not relinquish. The Gainesville High graduate might not have the gaudy numbers or flashy skills of some Heisman candidates, but he showed his poise and value to a national championship contender Saturday night. Ranked No. 1 in the country, Watson, the ACC championship game MVP, has Heisman Trophy aspirations.

“That’s the best team I’ve ever played in my entire life, I won’t lie”, said sophomore tailback Elijah Hood.

Yet still, Fedora found himself afterward talking about his team’s grit.

Clemson is heading to the College Football Playoff undefeated.

So now, there is time for much-needed rest before preparations truly begin for the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl against No. 4 Oklahoma.

This one came down to Clemson’s defense stopping Carolina when it had to, and the Heels defense wearing down against the No. 1 team in the nation.

But Watson wasn’t going to let the Tar Heels keep the lead for long.

As disappointing as the result of the game was for UNC and its fans, this was one heck of a season. North Carolina recovered an onside kick, but was called for offsides. But then all of that – the momentum, the possession – was gone. An offside call was made.

Seems like at least two officials had a ideal view of the play right on the line of scrimmage.

Junior CB Cordrea Tankersley picked off UNC’s Marquise Williams close to the goal line for his ACC second-best fifth interception – ranking fifth in the ACC in passes defended (12). “The officials saw a member of the kicking team break the plane before the ball was kicked”. “When you get into obvious passing situations against that defense it’s pretty tough”.