For the second straight day, the UNC men’s basketball team racked up foul calls at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. This time – thanks to a 30-point game from senior guard R.J. Davis – Carolina was able to overcome the whistles. Davis’ career-high-tying outburst helped the Tar Heels erase a halftime deficit and defeat Arkansas in the tournament’s third-place game, 87-72.

Davis’ game came as no other Tar Heel scored more than 13 points. Armando Bacot continued to struggle in the tournament, as the fifth-year senior center scored just nine points and grabbed only four rebounds. Harrison Ingram ended the day as Carolina’s leading rebounder, grabbing 10 boards alongside 13 points to post his second double-double in three days.

Head coach Hubert Davis used a unique starting lineup for the third consecutive day, as freshman guard Elliot Cadeau earned his first career start. Cadeau started in place of wing Cormac Ryan, who missed Friday’s game with an ankle injury suffered in the final seconds of Thursday’s loss against Villanova. Cadeau tallied seven points, three assists and two rebounds before fouling out for the second straight day. But it wasn’t Cadeau who led the team in assists – again, that honor went to Ingram, who flirted with a triple-double by dishing out six assists against the Razorbacks.

All that helped UNC negate a career-high 34 points from Arkansas’ Tramon Mark, who scored 34 points on 13-17 shooting. Mark’s heroics helped the Hogs come back from an early 12-point deficit and take the lead at the end of the first half, 38-35. The game remained close in the opening minutes of the second half, but key baskets from R.J. Davis, Ingram and Seth Trimble helped UNC build another double-digit lead. Arkansas cut it down to as little as six points with 7:02 remaining but could get no further.

The game is the second 30-point performance of Davis’ career. He also scored 30 in the UNC’s NCAA Tournament upset of No. 1 seed Baylor in 2022. For Bacot, it’s just the 16th time in 138 career games at Carolina he’s tallied four or fewer rebounds, and only the third in which he played at least 25 minutes.

UNC is now 5-1 on the young season. The Tar Heels will now return home from the Bahamas and will be back in action on Wednesday, November 29 when they host No. 7 Tennessee at the Smith Center at 7:15 p.m. The game is part of the new ACC-SEC Challenge.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Maggie Hobson

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