Fifth-year center Armando Bacot scored 22 points and grabbed 20 rebounds (just three off his career high) to lead the UNC men’s basketball team past Lehigh at the Smith Center on Saturday, 90-68. It’s the 70th career double-double for Bacot and his third career 20-point, 20-rebound performance.

Senior guard R.J. Davis matched Bacot’s 22 points, coincidentally with the exact same shooting numbers: eight makes on 14 shots. Davis rained in a trio of three-pointers, though UNC shot just 5-17 from downtown on the afternoon. Only Harrison Ingram and walk-on Rob Landry also made threes.

The lopsided final score belies Lehigh’s efforts to stay in striking distance through the first half and part of the second. The Mountain Hawks trailed by as many as 15 in the opening period but cut that lead down to nine at the half. The UNC lead continued to shrink in the early minutes of the second half, as a 10-2 Mountain Hawk run got the visitors to within 53-50 at the 13:25 mark.

The Tar Heels stayed composed an answered with a quick 9-0 spurt, and it was one-way traffic after that. Lehigh made only seven field goals after that, and Carolina easily pulled away.

Head coach Hubert Davis continued to utilize his bench, once again playing 10 Tar Heels for at least nine minutes. Freshman Elliot Cadeau played 21 minutes off the bench, though failed to record an assist after dishing out six in the season-opener against Radford. As a team, Carolina posted just 11 assists against 10 turnovers.

UNC’s best offense came at the free throw line, as the Tar Heels made 23 of 28 foul shots. The starting five of Cormac Ryan, R.J. Davis, Bacot, Paxson Wojcik and Harrison Ingram combined to shoot 14-16 at the line, with Ingram accounting for the only two misses.

Carolina is now 2-0 on the young season, with one more home game left before the team heads to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Tar Heels will host UC Riverside in the Smith Center on Friday at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward

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