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.