CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Jabari Mack picked off a fourth-down pass from Travis Burgess with 58 seconds left to help Louisville hold off North Carolina 16-14 on Saturday night in a game that ended in a brawl and each of the teams having to be separated.
Mack’s interception by snatching a ball that ricocheted off UNC receiver Jordan Shipp secured the win, with Mack returning the ball 32 yards before sliding to end the play and allow the Cardinals (7-3, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) to kneel out a fifth straight win.
“I thought when we had to bow up, we did,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. “The defense really stepped up and made a lot of big plays in the second half. I thought the played really good the whole game.”
But after the final snap, UNC defensive tackle Xavier Lewis and Louisville offensive lineman Johnnie Brown III kept jostling after the kneeldown that would drain the final seconds. That continued and escalated with multiple players stepping in and locking up, as jawing at one other escalated to shoving, players in pileups and a haze of flailing arms with possible punches being thrown.
That included multiple skirmishes and at least one tussle that broke off from the main mass of players, leading to a separate pileup of players in an end zone.
“It’s obviously unfortunate,” Brohm said. “You try to get things broken up as fast as you can. It didn’t get broken up too fast. But you never want to see that happen. So I’d have to see what really started it. Hopefully we can correct that and not do that again.”
The teams were eventually separated, with that clean-up work including UNC coach Bill Belichick stepping in to direct and pull multiple Tar Heels players away from the edge of what was brief-but-intense chaos.
“You play the game between the whistles, that’s not what we’re here for,” Belichick said, adding later: “We got out there and got everybody out as quickly as possible.”
The win kept the Cardinals alive in the hunt for a trip to the ACC championship game as they entered kickoff as the only two-loss team in the league standings.
Lincoln Kienholz threw for the Cardinals’ only touchdown on a night when both defenses were a step ahead.
Benjamin Hall scored two rushing touchdowns for UNC (5-5, 2-4), including a 6-yarder with 3:43 left that brought the Tar Heels to within 16-14. Then, after forcing a punt, UNC got the ball back with 1:41 left for a chance to drive for a winning field goal.
Burgess, pressed into duty when starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. exited in the second half after taking a jarring hit on a sack, nearly connected with Shipp on the fourth-and-12 play. But Shipp couldn’t control it and the ball popped to Mack for the clinching play.
“In the end, we just couldn’t get enough done,” Belichick said.
The takeaway
Louisville: The Cardinals hadn’t lost since falling to Wake Forest and at N.C. State, rolling to four straight wins — three by at least 24 points — while averaging 43.5 points. Things were tougher this time with only one touchdown, but the defense carried the load by holding the Tar Heels to 293 yards and coming up with two takeaways.
“Without them,” Kienholz said of the defense, “we probably wouldn’t be in the game.”
UNC: The Tar Heels’ defense led the way, too, holding Louisville to 302 yards. But the offense struggled to string together drives, a task that became trickier when Edwards exited for the mobile but inexperienced Burgess. That ultimately kept UNC a win shy of securing bowl eligibility.
ACC title-game implications
A win by UNC would’ve sent No. 5 Miami to next month’s ACC championship game in Charlotte. The Hurricanes (9-1, 7-0) need one win in their last two games to secure a spot, while No. 11 Wake Forest (9-1, 6-1) is closing in on its own bid as the only one-loss team in the league standings.
Louisville is the only team with two losses in the league race.
Up next
Louisville: Hosts Pittsburgh on Saturday.
North Carolina: At Virginia on Saturday.
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By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
