GREENVILLE, N.C. — 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 …
