Tar Heels Edged By Sharp-Shooting Fighting Irish

The No. 18 North Carolina men’s basketball team fell to No. 13 Notre Dame 71-70 Monday night inside the Smith Center to fall to 11-4 on the season and 1-1 in ACC play.

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With the victory, the Fighting Irish improved to 15-1 overall and a 3-0 mark in conference. The Tar Heels are now 5-2 at the Smith Center this year.

The Irish shot 46 percent from the floor and got 18 points from junior forward Zach Auguste to lead all scorers.

Despite the ‘lights out’ shooting from the nation’s leading team in field goal percentage, the Tar Heels clawed all the way back to claim a 70-69 lead late in the contest. But from there, Carolina would rue missing its final eight shots.

“Kennedy [Meeks] had two looks inside and that’s where I keep talking about he’s got to get more explosive because he just didn’t have much lift at that point. We missed a lot of shots. We had some good ones. We didn’t make many , or we didn’t make enough – that’s for sure,” UNC head coach Roy Williams says.

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As a team, UNC shot at a 36.9-percent clip overall and knocked down a mere 25 percent of their three-point attempts.

Junior point guard Marcus Paige led UNC with 15 points but missed the final potential game-winning shot with four defenders blanketing him.

J.P. Tokoto opened the scoring proceedings for the Tar Heels with the first two baskets for the home team that ignited the Dean Dome crowd.

But the Irish came out firing early, knocking down shots with ease to stake out a 10-6 lead with 16:33 on the first half clock.

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At one point, the Irish even stretched their advantage out to a full 10 points midway through the first 20 minutes of play with imperious shooting.

Notre Dame sharpshooter Demetrius Jackson lit it up in the first half, draining five of his seven attempts and tallying 12 points.

But a pair of 6-0 runs by UNC helped the Tar Heels close the halftime deficit down to a more manageable 38-34 margin.

With a more invigorated defense that was contesting every Notre Dame shot and 10 points of production out of Paige, the Tar Heels flipped the momentum heading into the locker room.

Carolina came out with intensity in the second half, and a fortuitous bounce off the basket from a Tokoto three-point attempt allowed the ball to sink through the nets to the delight of the crowd.

Big man Kennedy Meeks picked u his fourth foul just a few minutes into the second half and promptly took a seat on the bench.

Meanwhile, the prolific Irish attack was soaring, making shots from everywhere on the floor to hold the Tar Heels at bay and rebuild the advantage out to nine with 15:15 to play.

Notre Dame senior Pat Connaughton got the hot hand in the second half, but it was UNC freshman Theo Pinson who provided a much-needed boost off the bench to a waning Carolina attack.

With 11:51 to go in the contest, Notre Dame held a 57-49 edge.

Up until late, the Irish hadn’t missed a single free throw. That all changed when normally reliable Connaughton missed not one, but both free throws.

In typical Paige style, he popped a three-pointer on the other end to change the momentum of the game once again heading down the stretch. The Tar Heels trailed 69-68 with 3:09 to play.

But despite Notre Dame missing free throws the rest of the way, Carolina couldn’t muster enough offensive production, missing their final eight shots, to seize victory and when the buzzer sounded on a final Paige three-point heave, the game came to a close.

“Man, I’m proud of our group. We held off a lot of runs and did what we needed to do to escape, but [it was] a tough situation. I thought we were really poised. Every time they made a run we came out and executed and gave us a little bit of a cushion, and we needed all that cushion down the stretch,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey says.

Next up for the Tar Heels comes another high-powered ACC matchup with the No. 5 Louisville Cardinals traveling to Chapel Hill Saturday.

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