In an emotional, hard-fought top 10 matchup, No. 9 North Carolina couldn’t keep up with No. 5 Connecticut offensively or defensively in an 87-76 loss at Madison Square Garden in New York as part of the Jimmy V Classic. (12/5)
It was a close game throughout the first half, with the Tar Heels down by five at half, and Carolina scored the first bucket of the second half to close within three.
But the Huskies reeled off four threes without a miss over the next three minutes to get up by 13 at 58-45 and Carolina switched to catch-up mode.
Pressure defense combined with several buckets by UNC’s RJ Davis cut the deficit to five and later six points.
“We sped them up and took them out of rhythm and it was a five-point game,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “Then we had three wide-open shots and they didn’t go down.”
The Heels could get no closer as they missed nine of 10 shots while UConn increased the lead to as many as 17 points.
Coach Davis pointed to the Huskies’ 11-rebound edge as a big difference. “Before the game I told our guys that the No. 1 determining factor is rebounding,” he said. “It took away possessions for us and kept us out of transition.”
Another difference came at the free throw line where Carolina was a mere 13 of 22, easily the Tar Heels worst performance from the line this season.
RJ Davis had another good outing leading all scorers with 26 points, hitting all six of his free throws and canning four of eight threes. Harrison Ingram scored 20 and dished out five assists while Armando Bacot was the only other Tar Heel in double figures with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Cormac Ryan, brought in to be a three-point artist, was zero of six from beyond the three-point line as the Heels were outshot from the field 51.5 percent to 44.4 percent.
Cam Spencer led four Huskies in double figures with 23 points, 16 of them coming in the first half. UConn moves to 8-1 with its only loss against Kansas.
The Tar Heels, now 7-2, don’t play for 11 days when they meet Kentucky in a CBS tournament in Atlanta on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
For a box score and more commentary on the game, please click here.