GREENSBORO — Tierra Ruffin-Pratt obviously wasn’t interested in making an early exit from the ACC women’s tournament.

The senior guard led the way with 19 points – six of them during crunch time in the final 3 minutes, 4 seconds – as North Carolina grinded out a 62-57 victory against scrappy Boston College in the nightcap of the quarterfinals Friday night at Greensboro Coliseum.

The win sent the No. 3 seed Tar Heels into Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. semifinal against defending conference champion and No. 2 seed Maryland (24-6), which got past Wake Forest 92-81 in overtime.

Maryland is ranked No. 6 nationally, while North Carolina is 15th. The teams split a pair of regular-season meetings.

North Carolina improved to 27-5. Boston College fell to 12-19.

Fellow senior Waltiea Rolle added 10 points for the Tar Heels, who had walloped the Eagles 85-57 eight days earlier on senior night at Carmichael Arena and also beat them 80-52 on Feb. 7 in Chestnut Hill. Senior forward Krista Gross chipped in nine points with eight rebounds for UNC.

“We survived,” Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “They say at this time of year you survive and move on. I don’t want to take anything away from Boston College, but it’s hard when you play a team the third time and you’ve played real well the first two.”

“It wasn’t the prettiest basketball game you’ve ever watched, but that was by design,” Boston College coach Erik Johnson said. “(North Carolina) plays hard and physical and strong.”

UNC shot 41.5 percent from the floor to BC’s 30.5 and won the rebound battle 44-39.