A hangover from the Duke win? Maybe. Discord among the team because players were late for warmups? Perhaps. The loss of super-sub Seth Trimble to injury? Probably had an effect.
The only thing for certain is that North Carolina started slow and once the Tar Heels caught up, they committed three straight turnovers as Clemson beat Carolina for the second time in three seasons in Chapel Hill, 80-76. (2/3)
When you lose by four yet were down 15-2 after the first three minutes, it’s pretty easy to see that the difference was the first three minutes… an 80-second portion of it to be precise.
Up 6-2, the Tigers hit three straight three pointers over a minute and 20 seconds to take command of the game. First it was Joseph Girard who hit one before PJ Hall banged in two. By the first timeout of the game, Clemson had hit six of seven shots while Carolina had just managed one of six.
“We were down 15-2 because they were playing harder than us. That’s obvious,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis who called a timeout before the first official TV timeout. “I don’t know what a timeout telling them we need to play harder does, but we regrouped and understood that we needed to pick up our energy and effort. And we did and we got back into the game and we just weren’t able to finish it.”
Clemson still led by nine at the half at 43-34 after getting the margin up to 16 at 41-25 late in the first half.
A 16-7 Carolina run capped off by a Harrison Ingram three, after returning to the court from a leg injury earlier in the second half, tied the game at 70-all with 4:15 to play.
But the momentum was short lived as the Tar Heels fumbled the ball away on three straight possessions.
First, RJ Davis threw a bounce pass to Armando Bacot who was streaking to the goal for a go-ahead basket but it went between his legs. Then, Elliott Cadeau seemingly had a lane for a short jumper that would have tied it again but he pushed off to get free and was called for the foul. Then, with less two minutes to go, a frantic Jae’Lyn Withers corraled a loose ball and threw it into the backcourt for a third turnover in two minutes for the Heels.
Meanwhile, Clemson was scoring as the Tigers went up 77-70 to wrap up the win.
“Down the stretch, that’s when the discipline and details have to be even tighter,” Coach Davis said. “You have to execute on the offensive end and I think we had the ball 70-70 all and we turned the ball over. They scored, they got offensive rebounds. We fouled them, we put them on a free throw line. And those are things down the stretch that you just can’t have.”
Leading the way for the Tigers, now 15-7 and 5-6 in the league, were Hall with 25 and Girard with 21.
The Tar Heels, who were led by Bacot’s 24 points and Davis’ 22 points (although it took him 22 shots to get there), fall to 18-5 and 10-2 in the ACC with a game at Miami looming Saturday at 4 p.m.
For a box score and more on the game, please click here.