Category Archives: UNC

State outshoots UNC to cap miraculous ACC title run

After winning four games in four days, including one miraculous overtime, N.C. State seemed destined to win it’s first ACC Tournament title since 1987. And that’s just what the Wolfpack did, outshooting North Carolina 55 percent to 37 percent in an 84-76 win in D.C. (3/16) 

“I’m on top of the world,” said Raleigh native D.J. Horne, who scored 29 points to pace the Wolfpack. Horne propelled State to an early nine-point lead at 20-11.

Carolina was able to catch up over the next six minutes and even took a 40-39 halftime lead when Cormac Ryan hit a three from the left corner at the buzzer.

But D.J. Burns, the tournament’s most valuable player, backed in and scored to give State a 45-43 lead with 18:13 left in the game. The Wolfpack, which led 33 minutes of the game, never trailed again.

It stayed close with the Pack’s lead fluctuating from three to eight points until breaking it open at the end. UNC’s RJ Davis scored on a 15 footer to pull the Heels within five at 67-62 with 6:05 to go.

After a Carolina turnover, Casey Morsell answered with an open three to put State in command at 70-62. Free throws by Horne gave the Wolfpack its largest lead to that point at 72-62 with just over four minutes to go.

The Tar Heels pressure defense forced several turnovers down the stretch but they couldn’t capitalize as the Heels missed 12 of their last 13 shots, several of which were open threes. Carolina hit just three of their 18 three-point attempts in the second half and finished a dismal eight of 30 from beyond the arc.

“Our pace wasn’t up to par,” said UNC’s RJ Davis, who had a game-high 30 points but it took him 26 shots to get there.

UNC coach Hubert Davis blamed the defense for not getting stops in order to give the offense an opportunity to get fastbreak points. “We just couldn’t guard them tonight,” he said adding that the Heels will once again go back to its mantra of defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball as they head into the NCAA Tournament.

State, now 22-14, will get the ACC automatic bid to the NCAA tourney. “Winning five games in five nights is a miracle,” an emotional Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said. “We’ve got to get some rest because, guess what, we’re going to the NCAA tournament.”

One big reason for that is the 280-pound Burns, who hit his first three-pointer of the season and scored 20 points going nine of 12 from the floor. “I allowed him to get the ball where he wanted,” said Armando Bacot, who scored 18 himself. “When he gets it there, it’s hard to stop him.”

UNC falls to 27-7 having now lost seven of the last 10 times it has played in the ACC Tournament finals. The Tar Heels now wait to see if they can still secure a No. 1 seed and opening games in Charlotte.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.

Vets Bacot, Davis lead Heels to finals, 72-65 over Pitt

When it came down to getting into the ACC Tournament finals, it took two veteran North Carolina players – Armando Bacot handling the inside chores and RJ Davis the outside job – to push the Tar Heels to a tough 72-65 victory over Pittsburgh. (3/15) 

Bacot got yet another double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds to tie Ralph Sampson for the second most in NCAA history. Meanwhile, RJ Davis scored 25 points to reach the 2,000-point mark for his career.

Davis scored nine of the the Tar Heels last 10 points as Carolina broke a 62-62 tie over the last four minutes to win going away.

“RJ has been our closer all year,” Bacot said of Davis. But it also took Bacot’s inside game down the stretch as Davis (11) and Bacot (7) combined for the Tar Heels’ last 18 points of the game.

“It’s just incredible to have two players like that on my team,” said Harrison Ingram, who transferred in this season from Stanford.

Bacot and Davis praised Ingram for his defense on Pitt’s Blake Hinson, who averaged 19 points a game but only got five points in this game.

It was Carlton Carrington who handled most of the scoring load for Pitt as he scored 16 of his 24 points in the first half when the Panthers held the lead. Pitt went on a 13-0 run early to control most of the first half, settling for a 35-33 lead at the break.

UNC’s Seth Trimble clamped down on Carrington in the second half. After Elliott Cadeau placed a bounce pass in traffic to Davis for a layup and a foul, Carolina took the lead at 43-42 with 15 minutes to go and never trailed again.

The lead never got higher than seven points, however, and an 8-2 Pitt run tied it at 62 with just over four minutes to go. That’s when Davis hit a three from the top of the key and followed that up, less than two minutes later, with a three from the right side.

Bacot rebounds and Davis free throws wrapped it up.

Pitt, playing for its NCAA Tournament bid life, was aggressive from the start and got into some foul trouble in the first half with the two big men – Guillermo Diaz-Graham and Frederiko Frederiko – trying to cover Bacot.

Pitt falls to 22-11 while the Tar Heels improve to 27-6 overall, and advance to tomorrow’s 8:30 p.m. championship game against N.C. State or Virginia.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.

Sticky D, fastbreak offense lead Heels over FSU

There was no letdown for North Carolina after an emotional win at Duke as the No. 1 seeded Tar Heels used an aggressive defense to run past Florida State 92-67 in the ACC Tournament. (3/14)

“Everybody knows their role,” said UNC’s Elliott Cadeau, who had eight points, four rebounds, six assists and three steals. “We have good chemistry. We’re a good team.”

Carolina not only controlled the boards (47-20 rebounds) but the Tar Heels had a season-high 26 fastbreak points.

Armando Bacot, who scored 12 of his points 14 in the first half, pounded the offensive boards in the first half to help Carolina open up a game that was only 20-19 UNC with eight minutes to go in the opening stanza.

It was ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis, however, who spearheaded a 12-0 run late in the first half. First he came up with a steal that led to a run-out layup and then half a minute later he drilled a transition three.

After a battling Bacot layin – following the Heels getting multiple chances on the possession – Carolina led by 19 at 46-27.

A 10-2 Tar Heel run over just two minutes early in the second half gave Carolina its biggest lead to that point at 62-41 following a Davis swished transition three with 14:34 left in the game.

The lead got as high as 27 on several occasions with the first coming on a Jae’Lyn Withers three from the right wing with 3:54 to go which made it 84-57.

UNC coach Hubert Davis said the Tar Heels got going once they increased the pace. “It was one of our most complete games of the season,” he said, noting that the rebounding and speedy UNC guards led to the Heels getting opportunities off the break. 

Davis led four Tar Heels in double figures with 18 points. Bacot and Cormac Ryan each scored 14 while Seth Trimble came off the bench to score 12, including a poster-worthy dunk down the lane.

Florida State was led by Primo Spears 17 points.

The Tar Heels improve to 26-6 overall, and advance to tomorrow’s matchup with either Wake Forest or Pitt.

For a box score, a highlight video and more on the game, please click here.

‘RJ, you f*cker, I wanna kill you’ – silence is deafening

Duke coach Jon Scheyer completely ignored water bottles and debris being thrown at players but pleaded for the same group of students to accept his apology for the performance of his team. The optics of this are horrible. What could be worse? Death threats without consequences. Some are saying the heckler says, “I’m gonna kill you” rather than “I wanna kill you.” Listen for yourself. Please click here for more.

RJ Davis, ACC Player of the Year, Delivering on Roy Williams’ Hunch

As North Carolina’s final home game of the season came to an end last week and standout guard RJ Davis headed off the court at the Smith Center, he made a special stop before disappearing down the tunnel to the Tar Heels’ locker room. There was retired coach Roy Williams, the UNC luminary who Davis played under early on in his college career, waiting with a hug. Please click here for more.

Duke ‘Crazies’ Throw Drinks, Gum Balls At North Carolina Players Following Loss

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that North Carolina players were excited when the clock hit zero, rushing out onto the court to celebrate the win, but also give a little bit of that taunting back to the Duke student section. This is when things took a turn, leading to students throwing drinks, cups and even a gumball at North Carolina players. Please click here for more.

Ryan leads Heels over Duke for ACC title

After six seasons in college, Cormac Ryan had the game of his life by scoring a career-high 31 points, including six threes, to lead North Carolina to an ACC regular season title with an 84-79 at rival Duke. (3/9)

“I love to play in these environments,” Ryan said. “This game meant a lot to us. We didn’t want to share the title with anyone… Winning outright in this building is something special.”

Ryan set the tone early by swishing three triples in the first four minutes to force Duke to take a timeout with the Tar Heels up 15-4.

The Heels extended the lead to 15 on three different occasions in the first half. A Jalen Washington dunk made it 21-6. An Elliott Cadeau layup high off the backboard made it 27-12 and an RJ Davis three put the Heels up 30-15.

Duke didn’t go away, getting threes from McCain and Proctor to help the Blue Devils cut the halftime margin to nine at 40-31.

A quick Duke spurt at the beginning of the second half, led by Kyle Filipowski, who scored seven points in less than two minutes, put the Blue Devils right back in the game. After Jeremy Roach hit a three from the top of the key, the Tar Heels led by just one at 43-42 with 16:55 still left in the game.

But the resilient Tar Heels went on a quick 9-1 run of their own to get back control of the game with a 52-43 lead. Highlighting the run was an old-fashioned three-point play by Armando Bacot, who backed in, scored and was fouled.

The lead hovered around six to 10 points most of the remainder of the game. A long two by Cadeau at the end of the shot clock with 40 seconds left seemed to wrap it up at 80-72. But Duke scored seven points in 35 seconds to make it close at the end.

Carolina game hero Ryan hit four straight free throws late in the game to help keep Duke at bay.

“We competed and fought,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “We had the will, the effort, the want-to, everything you have to have to win a game like this on the road against Duke. I really wanted our guys to be ACC champions alone and they are.”

Harrison Ingram, the other starting transfer player, was the only other Tar Heel in double figures as he scored 14 points and pulled in 10 rebounds.

Duke, who end the regular season with a 24-7 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the ACC, was led by Filipowski’s 23 points and Jared McCain’s 19 points.

“We took some tough shots that led to them getting some run outs,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, adding that the Devils may have gotten caught up in the senior day activities. “We’re hurt and disappointed but our guys always respond.” He said he expects his team to regroup and be refreshed for the ACC Tournament.

The Tar Heels improve to 25-6 overall and 17-3 in the ACC. Carolina goes into next week’s ACC Tournament in Washington, DC as the No. 1 seed. With that, they’ll face the winner of the 8 vs. 9 game at noon on Thursday, March 14.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.

Heels, Bacot have fun on Senior Night with 84-51 win over Irish

Five North Carolina players scored in double figures, including three who have or may have played their last game at the Smith Center, as the Tar Heels were all smiles in an 84-51 rout of Notre Dame on Senior Night. (3/5)

The jocularity actually started before the game as seven players went through the senior activities and the player introductions – with three seldom-used seniors (Duwe Farris, Rob Landry, Creighton Lebo) getting their first starts as Tar Heels.

The fun continued as Carolina’s sticky defense and hot three-point shooting put the Heels up by 16 at the half 41-25.

But the celebration wasn’t in full measure until the Tar Heels went on a 16-0 run at the start of the second half – a run that included a rare, crowd-pleasing three-pointer by big man Armando Bacot, playing his last home game after six years on the team.

The Fighting Irish managed to cut a 32-point deficit to 20 before Carolina went on an 18-0 run, capped by – guess what – another three-pointer by Bacot with 3:12 to go to make it 84-46, the largest lead of the game. Shortly after the bucket, UNC coach Hubert Davis took Bacot out of the game to thunderous applause from the Carolina faithful.

Bacot said he’s probably taken 30,000 three pointers on that court as he practiced over the year, with it all culminating with two threes on Senior Night including the last shot he’ll ever take in a game at the Smith Center. He hit just one other three-pointer this season.

“I told RJ (Davis) to get me the ball and I was going to shoot it from wherever I was,” Bacot said with a laugh.

The Carolina fans showed their affection for Bacot at various intervals before and during the game, not just when he hit the two threes. “When I came here I never expected the love that has been shown to me by the fans and the community,” he said, adding that he was pretty immature when he first set foot on campus. “I started here as a boy and I left as a man.”

While the evening had no tears as some previous Senior Nights, Coach Davis said he was emotional before the game. “I saw all those parents and our seniors taking the floor for the last time and so many memories and moments went through my head – and how it goes by so quickly,” he said.

With the Carolina defense holding Notre Dame to just over 30 percent shooting, Coach Davis and the Tar Heels were able to enjoy the game as the Tar Heels clinched at least a tie for the ACC regular season title.

“This group of guys is really special,” Coach Davis said. “I really wanted this group to be able to hang a banner.”

Bacot said the Tar Heels don’t just want to share the banner with Duke either which would necessitate Carolina winning at Duke next Saturday. “Then we want to go get two more banners,” he said referring to the ACC tournament title and the NCAA tournament title.

RJ Davis, who is a senior but has another year of eligibility if he wants it, led the Tar Heels with 22 points while one-year transfer Cormac Ryan added 14 to go along with Bacot’s 14 points. Harrison Ingram finished with 11 points and a team-high 14 rebounds while Jalen Washington scored 10 points.

Notre Dame, who had won four of its last five games, are now 12-18 and 7-12 in the ACC. Tae Davis was the only Irish in double figures with 11 points.

The Tar Heels improve to 24-6 overall and 16-3 in the ACC. With the NCAA Tournament looming, most bracket predictions have the Heels as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. A win at Duke on Saturday would give the Heels sole possession of the regular season title and likely a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.