Pittsburgh came into the Smith Center Wednesday and played perhaps its best game of the year, deaing a blow to North Carolina’s NCAA hopes 76-67 in a game that wasn’t that close. (2\/16)<\/p>\n
While Carolina should reach 20 wins, which used to sort of be the standard, the Heels haven’t gotten wins against good teams and they generally have beaten the teams they should beat until the loss to Pitt. <\/p>\n
“The tougher team won,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “Their effort on both ends of the floor was better than ours.” <\/p>\n
The Tar Heels led 12-8 early despite poor shooting. But the Panthers picked up their shooting with five threes in a row, three of them from Ithiel Horton to take command at 29-14.<\/p>\n
The hot-shooting Panthers shot 60 percent in the first half as opposed to Carolina’s 27 percent to take a 40-23 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
Pitt increased the lead to as many as 21 points at 59-38 before Carolina finally made a move.<\/p>\n
Kerwin Walton came off the bench to toss in back-to-back threes to pull the Heels within 13 at 59-46 with just over seven minutes to play.<\/p>\n
With under four minutes left, UNC’s Caleb Love, who was just two of nine from the floor in the first half, started a 9-2 Carolina run with a three from the top of the key. When Love passed under the hoop to Brady Manek who scored on an up and under shot, Carolina trailed just 69-63 with 1:49 to go.<\/p>\n
It looked like it might be one of those old Carolina comebacks when Manek stole a long inbounds pass but when he got the ball to Love, he lost the ball out of bounds for an unforced turnover.<\/p>\n
On their next possession, Pitt converted an old-fashioned three-point play from John Hugley to wrap it up. <\/p>\n
Caleb led four Tar Heels in double figures with 19 points, despite missing five of six three-point shots. Armando Bacot was a non-factor for much of the game, not scoring a basket until the second half.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh, now 11-16 overall and 6-10 in the ACC, hit 10 three pointers, which is more than four over the Panthers’ average.<\/p>\n
North Carolina, now 18-8 overall and 10-5 in the ACC, travel to Virginia Tech Saturday in a must-win situation.<\/p>\n