Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
The very best teams are both, but Carolina would not have come home with its sixth ACC road win without some serious good fortune after going stone cold over the last four minutes and holding off Miami 75-72 in Coral Gables.
The Tar Heels began hot and built an early 12-point lead behind two 3-pointers by R.J. Davis and one each from Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram. They gradually lost it and went into halftime behind 41-40 from poor shot selection and substitution issues due in part to sixth man Seth Trimble’s continued absence with a concussion.
Hubert Davis probably didn’t like the Heels taking 19 of their 33 first-half shots from behind the arc (they made 7) without trying harder to get the ball inside. They were to finish with an ACC high of 11 3-pointers on 31 attempts, most in a game this season.
Carolina regained the lead on a 10-3 run fueled by 3-balls from Ryan and Ingram and four free throws by Davis — including two on a technical foul by Miami’s best player Norchad Omier, who scored 16 points before intermission and was held to four points in the second after aggressive defense by Armando Bacot.
The Hurricanes’ Nijel Pack had 18 points in the first half but only 2 points in the second due to 6-foot Superman R.J. Davis, who made it more difficult for Pack to get the ball off screens set by his teammates. Both Pack and Davis drained four first-half 3-pointers before Miami went 2-for-14 and Pack 0-for-2 after that.
Davis had 25 points in another sterling game that augurs well for his chances to win ACC Player of the Year and make first-team All-American. He said his suffocating defense on Pack made him feel like old teammate Leaky Black.
The Heels were up 12 with less than eight minutes to go on Elliot Cadeau’s second trey and the fifth from R.J., who only made one two-pointer along with his 8-for-8 from the foul line in his eighth 25-plus game of the season.
Their luck turned as they started missing from downtown and Miami found new life in an offense that had scored only 38 points in its last loss at Virginia. That, in turn, ramped up the Canes’ defense that held Carolina without a field goal for the last 4:07, when the only scoring came on three free throws from Cadeau, Ingram and Ryan. Each also missed one that made it tight to the end.
The final seconds got scary after fouls and turnovers cut the lead to 73-71 that Carolina survived when Miami missed its second free throw on purpose and got the rebound only to lose possession on a rare infraction.
The Tar Heels hurried to the locker room and out of town with an 11-2 ACC mark, still good for first place in the standings, and 19-5 overall. They will be favored in their next two games at Syracuse Tuesday night and at home on Saturday against Virginia Tech, who are respectively 6-7 and 5-7 in ACC play. Then comes UNC’s turn in Charlottesville, where the Cavaliers returned home after edging 7-5 Florida State for their eighth straight win to stay within one game of Carolina at 10-3.
“They responded to a lot of adversity in both halves,” Davis said of his team afterward on the Tar Heel Sports Network. Of Miami’s Omier and Pack scoring 34 points in the first half and only 6 in the second, the head coach said his defense “tried to get the ball out of Pack’s hands and with Omier… we didn’t have an answer in the first half and had to try something different, and it worked.”
The final stat sheet was kind of a mess for Hubert’s first win over Miami as a head coach. The Heels shot 36.5 percent from the floor, 33 from outside and 61 from the foul line. They had 6 of their total 15 assists and 9 of their 16 turnovers that led to 22 Miami points (the second most giveaways in this season) all in the second half, when Bacot and Davis limited Omier and Pack to 2-for-13 shooting.
Bacot came to life with 3 offensive rebounds in the second frame to finish with 15 in his 26th career game of at least 15. With his 13 total points, the fifth-year player garnered his 79th career double double (11th of the season, two behind Omier in the ACC) to pass legendary Lew Alcindor and Jerry Lucas and tie Oscar Robertson, among others, for eighth all-time in NCAA annals.
“We don’t win without Armando in the second half,” Davis concluded.
UNC is 9-2 this season and 57-22 in the last five years when AB has a double-double. The school’s all-time leading rebounder passed Sam Perkins for third in UNC career scoring (2,149 points) and moved ahead of Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan for third place in all-time ACC rebounds (1,581 and counting) in his record 156th game at Carolina for the fifth-year player.
With no fouls in the first half, Bacot was clearly more physical against Omier in the second, when he was more like the “dude” Hubert asked him to emulate. In addition to his double-double, he blocked two shots to become the first Tar Heel with 2,000 career points, 1,500 rebounds, 200 blocks and 100 steals.
As for Davis’ book, this was also his 16th 20-point game and the 18th in which he led the team in scoring (Carolina is 14-4 in those). He made five 3-pointers for the seventh time in his career and, especially, extended his school best of making multiple threes to 21, six more than any other Tar Heel player since the 3-point shot debuted in 1987. The ACC’s leading scorer moved into 14th place in UNC history with 1,819 points, and — if Davis continues at this pace for the rest of this season and takes his fifth COVID year in 2024-2025 — has an outside chance of catching all-time leader Tyler Hansbrough (2,872).
North Carolina guard RJ Davis (4) drives through Miami forward Norchad Omier, right, and guard Nijel Pack during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“I feel bad about what I ask [R.J. Davis] to do every game,” Coach Davis said of the star senior. “Not only that, he brings it in practice. He’s one of those special players I am blessed to coach and be around, with the impact he’s had on this program and this team.”
Freshman Cadeau had a college-career high of 19 points, 11 in the first half, and made two 3-pointers for the first time this season (his first in ACC play). He also had an ACC-best eight assists and the most since he dished out 10 against Tennessee, plus a season-high four steals. Clearly getting more comfortable at this level, Cadeau’s continued improvement will make opponents reconsider laying off him at the 3-point line to double Davis.
Defensively, Carolina held Miami to 26 percent from the arc (6 of 23), the 12th time an opponent shot under 30 percent this season (UNC is 11-1 in those games). The Tar Heels led Miami for 32:30, one game after not leading Clemson for a single second in the home loss they were trying to get over.
Featured image via Associated Press/Rebecca Blackwell
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