Appropriately for the Academy Awards season, UNC junior Harrison Ingram said it felt like he was in a movie. And the Best Supporting Actor got just what he was looking for when transferring from “football school” Stanford north of Hollywood to play on Tobacco Road in the biggest game.
And as Duke tried to restrict R.J. Davis with a harassing, double-teaming defense, Ingram and Armando Bacot made sure the world knows that Carolina Basketball is back with award-winning performances in a tough-guy movie at their own personal OK Corral.
Playing 39 of the 40 minutes, the infectious Ingram was Cagney, Eastwood and Denzel all wrapped into a bravo evening that will be long remembered. He and Bacot were the decisive factors in a first half that set the tone and ignited a capacity crowd that didn’t sit down even during timeouts.
And it was no coincidence that UNC decided to use halftime (when the Tar Heels led by 10 points) to honor the toughest guy of them all: Tyler Hansbrough’s induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame with snippets of Psycho T’s rugged career that included, of course, taking a downhill elbow to his nose from Duke’s Gerald Henderson in 2007 on the same floor. In typical Tyler demeanor, he waved in appreciation but clearly wanted to get back to watching the kind of game he played to perfection.
Ingram and Bacot combined for 23 points in the first half, taking the mantle when R.J. was limited to 2 of 6 shooting but broke two early ties with his baskets (assisted by Ingram and fellow football school transfer Cormac Ryan) for the lead Carolina never lost over the next 39 minutes of high-stakes hoops.
Of Davis’ 17 points were his two late long balls that twice gave UNC 13-point leads. He also made 5 of 6 free throws, the miss being the Heels’ first of the second half with 53 seconds left and comfortably ahead by 9. Duke made 9 of 11 from the stripe but, far more importantly, did not get to the foul line in the first half while Carolina was building its double-digit lead.
It grew to 15 points in the second half on a jumper by Ingram, got back to 14 on a layup by Jalen Washington and stayed at 13 on two free throws by Jae’Lyn Withers, a second 3-ball from Ryan and a jumper by Seth Trimble, no bit player with 10 points that included slashing drives from the corner.
Duke shot 54 percent in the second half but never got closer than 9 and, as Woody Durham once said famously, “the party is ready to begin on Franklin Street.”
Carolina shot 50 percent for the fourth time this season and is 19-0 under Hubert Davis and has won 27 straight when shooting that or better. UNC’s bench outscored Duke,14-6, and is 12-0 this season while doing that.
Bacot’s double-double was 25 and 10 (the 77th of his career) and tied Charlie Scott’s 1970 record of adding 5 assists to the mix against Duke.
Ingram’s was 23 and 13 (he has 122 rebounds in the last 10 games) including five crucial 3-pointers plus 4 steals, 1 assist, 1 block and 1 of only 5 Tar Heel turnovers for the game.
“We really took care of the basketball,” Hubert Davis said of his team’s best ACC effort of the season in that key category. Duke had 11 giveaways off which Carolina scored 19 points.
Elliot Cadeau’s 1-for-9 shooting will overshadow his fine floor play with 3 assists and 1 turnover. The Dukies were laying off Cadeau while doubling Davis and three of Elliot’s wide-open longballs went halfway down before popping out.
The 93-84 victory gave Carolina a stranglehold on first place in the ACC with a 10-1 record, two and a half games ahead of the Blue Devils and two on surging Virginia, which has won six straight and may become UNC’s chief competitor heading into the dramatic conclusion and credits of this regular season feature film.
Best Actor Bacot literally rebounded from an off week when he took some criticism over his new role as a high-post player setting more screens than patrolling the glass. Perhaps as an intentional reminder to his critics, UNC flashed a pre-game stat on the big boards that said AB had averaged 12.1 rebounds per game in January.
UNC’s Armando Bacot swats a shot by Duke’s Kyle Filipowski on Saturday, February 3 2024.
From the opening tip, Bacot was guarding Duke 7-footer Kyle Filipowski, who had 21 points but made only one 3-pointer, which is a big part of his game. The Blue Devils’ breakout star was freshman guard Jared McCain (23 points and 11 rebounds) who may have played his first and last game in Chapel Hill as he moves up the mock draft boards. Tyrese Proctor, another NBA hopeful, scored only one basket in six attempts but used his 6-foot-5 length to give Davis the most trouble on defense.
R.J. was still a factor with 5 steals and an assist in a brutal battle that once saw Davis lying on the court from an elbow to the chops. In the confusion that had both teams leaving the bench area, the phantom technical was called on Carolina. The crowd went nuts when Filipowski missed the first of two free throws.
Duke is the only game of the season when every seat is filled before tip-off, and while the sweet duet sang the National Anthem, the Tar Heels lined up and faced their opponents when in prior games they faced the students in the risers behind the home basket. The pre-game video included the late Stuart Scott and Eric Montross, two sacred alums who will live forever. The starting lineup grew in crescendo with R.J. Davis taking the noise to a new level by the fans who love their No. 4.
There were early jitters, as Ryan’s first 3-pointer from the corner missed everything only to have his next hit nothing by net. Bacot front-rimmed a short shot from the lane and two free throws, but then shook it off to drain a straight-away 15-footer. Later, he made a lefty jump hook and took it hard to the hole with a left-handed layup that drew Filipowski’s fourth foul.
While it was Bacot’s fifth Duke game in Chapel Hill (10th overall with a 5-5 record), this was his best against the Blue Devils in the 49th match-up of the top ten Bluebloods. He will have at least one more in Durham on March 9 and go to Cameron with the strongest Tar Heel team since the Final Four surprise of 2022. Bacot’s latest cast of characters has more firepower and ferocity behind improving youngsters and grizzled veterans like Ryan and Ingram, who seem made for the rivalry, and Davis, a star who was born for it.
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dook did not play poorly but Carolina is the better team. The team did everything required to defeat dook.
Bacot was magnificent as usual. Scoring is not the only dimension that Bacot brings to the game. His offensive presence in the middle opens up the game for the other four players. His improved ability to handle the double teams is one of the reasons he had 5 assists.
Bacot is quite clearly one of the best Tar Heel players of all time. Getting him for another year was a huge bonus.
I had a lot of concern prior to the year, not about the quality of the team or the coaching staff, but about my own perception of this being a Carolina Team, given the NIL and the number of transfers. And yet, every one seems 100% Tar Heel and has since the first game.
And Filipowski demonstrated his solid credentials as a Dookie by whining to all three refs consecutively about a foul call, and even more with his cheap shot to R.J.’s face late in the game, when it was clear Dook had been badly beaten. I’m still baffled by the no-call by the refs after F—-powski deliberately knocked R.J. to the floor.
“solid credentials as a Dookie”
LOL, it’s the truth.
Every game has some bad calls, both ways. But we seem to get the short straw on way too many, and when the refs review the dang call and still ignore the truth, something is wrong.
The refs were correct….there was a hook and hold! It was Filipowski doing it!! RJ was just trying to stay off the floor! Wow, tech on RJ, foul shots for Flip, which he missed the first (karma bit him)! Good game TARHEELS!