There’s no place like home.

After an arduous road trip which saw the team lose four straight games, the UNC men’s basketball team returned to the Smith Center with a flourish Saturday afternoon. The Tar Heels snapped that four-game losing streak with a 75-59 win against Georgia Tech, improving Carolina’s record to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in ACC play.

Carolina closed the half on a 16-2 run, blowing open what had been a close contest and taking a 39-26 lead into the locker room.

“That last three minutes of the first half, it’s the first time I’ve felt like it looked like Carolina basketball,” head coach Hubert Davis said after the game. “The way we were defending, the way that we were running… I came in at halftime [and] that’s the first thing I said to the coaching staff. It was great.”

After sitting against Virginia Tech due to a nagging shoulder injury, diagnosed by Davis as an AC joint sprain, senior center Armando Bacot returned to action in big way. The preseason ACC Player of the Year scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to secure his 54th career double-double, which is just six shy of Billy Cunningham’s school record. It was also Bacot’s 61st career game with 10 or more rebounds, which does tie a school record.

“They’ve got stats for everything now,” Bacot said. “I guess that’s a record… I was like, ‘Dang, I’ve been here a long time.'”

Junior guard R.J. Davis joined his teammate above the 20-point plateau, leading all scorers with 22 points as well as 10 rebounds for his third career double-double. It’s the first time since the 2017-18 season that two Tar Heels have each recorded 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds in the same game.

Davis and Bacot each recorded six boards in the first half, though Bacot gave an explanation why.

“I told him I gave him a few rebounds just because I didn’t want to fully extend my arm on some of them,” he said. “So I just boxed out and let him get the rebound. Seriously, that’s the reason why.”

“I told him, ‘I need two more [rebounds for a double-double,]'” Davis said. “He looked out for me in the second half, but I would say first half, I was grabbing them.”

Carolina’s rebounding margin of +21 (43-22) is its highest of the season. The Yellow Jackets only grabbed one offensive rebound. UNC also dominated points in the paint (36-22) and fast-break points (17-3).

All five of Carolina’s starters played 30 or more minutes against the Yellow Jackets, with all except Leaky Black reaching double figures. Freshman guard Seth Trimble continued to see quality minutes off the bench, and he was on the court for the Tar Heels’ run to end the first half. An assist in transition from Trimble to Davis capped it off.

The feel-good moment of the game came in the final minutes, as freshman forward Jalen Washington entered the game for the first time all season. Washington missed the entirety of his senior season of high school and the beginning of this season with a torn ACL. Not only did Washington play, but he scored on his only shot of the game and finished with two points.

“He’s just a really sweet kid,” Hubert Davis said of Washington. “I love coaching him. I love that he’s here. I wish his parents were here. I know the road that he has taken to get here.”

“Going through the thing that I did is really hard,” Washington said. “But I feel like I’ve been blessed with great parents and having good faith. I’ve been able to work back and just keep high spirits the whole time.”

With the losing streak now behind them, the Tar Heels will look to construct a winning streak when they take on The Citadel in Chapel Hill on Tuesday night.

 

Featured image via Todd Melet. For a complete photo gallery of the game, click here.

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