Inside a raucous Dean Smith Center, the No. 3 UNC men’s basketball team used a combined 46 points from Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram to beat No. 7 Duke 93-84. It’s the first win for the Tar Heels against second-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer.
𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐍.#CarolinaFamily | @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/rX33bXApXq
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) February 4, 2024
Bacot tied his season high with 25 points on a highly efficient 10-13 shooting performance. He added 10 rebounds to register his first double-double since the Syracuse game on January 13. In addition, Bacot dished out five assists, making him the first Tar Heel to record a 25/10/5 stat-line against the Blue Devils since Charlie Scott. Bacot nearly had a double-double in the first half, recording 12 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes.
“I knew we couldn’t lose this game,” Bacot said. “I see what everybody said. I miss nothing. Going into this game, it was a different fire. I came in pissed off… people questioning me and how much I really want it. I took that personally.”
“I thought it was important for him to get off to a good start,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “He was able to do that, and I felt like that gave him confidence to be able to be a force. When he’s dominant… that opens everything up for us.”
Ingram added a double-double of his own, scoring a season-high 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. He also stuffed the stat sheet with four steals and a block, all while not recording a single turnover.
“Whether he’s hitting shots or not, he’s always bringing energy,” Davis said. “He does so much for us, on and off the court and in the locker room. It’s stuff you guys don’t see and don’t look at on the stat sheet. You never know how new guys will respond to being on this type of stage, because it is a first. Himself and others, I thought they responded really well.”
Carolina’s offense was in such a rhythm, it ended the first half up 45-35 despite R.J. Davis not taking a single three-point shot. But even with that quiet half, Davis ended his night with 17 points. He made a pair of threes in the second half to extend his school-record streak of consecutive games with multiple made threes to 19.
The Blue Devils, the leading three-point shooting team in the ACC, had no such luck from downtown. Duke ended the night just 5-19 from long distance. Jared McCain, Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach each reached the 20-point mark for the Blue Devils, but no other Duke player had more than 11. Guard Tyrese Proctor was held in check all night, finishing with only two points on six shots.
Carolina finished at an even 50 percent from the floor, though Duke actually outshot the Tar Heels by a percentage point. UNC earned a sizable advantage at the foul line, finishing 18-25 on free throws compared to 9-11 from the Blue Devils. Duke didn’t take a single free throw in the first half. Carolina also held a significant advantage in bench points (14-6), assists (18-8) and turnovers (11-5). Several of Duke’s giveaways resulted in fast break points for Carolina, which ended the night with a sizzling 1.329 points per possession.
“The way we practice, as hard as we go, as hard as we play, as fast as we are… we feel like no team can run with us,” said Ingram. “No one’s gonna beat us at our game.”
“Whether it’s a made basket, miss, turnover, out of a timeout, free throw, let’s go,” Hubert Davis said. “I thought our pace was good.”
Ten of Carolina’s 14 bench points came from Seth Trimble, who filled in for Elliot Cadeau when the freshman star was whistled for two quick fouls early in the second half. It’s only the fifth time this season Trimble has reached double figures.
The Tar Heels only trailed for 16 seconds, when Duke scored first to make the score 2-0. The Carolina lead grew to as large as 15 points at 63-48 in the second half and – despite multiple Blue Devil attempts to rally – never fell below eight points after halftime. Carolina had an answer for each Duke push, including when Davis was whistled for a flagrant foul in the final minute. Filipowski missed one of his two foul shots, and the Blue Devils turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds pass. It was that kind of night.
“Filipowski, he’s a great player, but I think at the end at the end of the day, the ACC runs through me,” said Bacot, who put the cherry on top of the night with a breakaway dunk in the final seconds. “We’ve got a great team, so we can beat anybody… I knew I would dominate.”
With the win, Carolina improves to 18-4 on the season and 10-1 in league play, two games clear of second-place Virginia at 8-3. Duke sits 2.5 games behind at 7-3 in conference play. The Tar Heels will be back in action on Tuesday night when they host Clemson at the Smith Center at 7 p.m.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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