Do you Love Caleb or do you not Love Caleb?
Rarely has Carolina basketball had a lightning rod like the junior who wears No. 2. He is a streak shooter with a marksman’s mentality; he can miss 11 straight 3-pointers and fire off the 12th with confidence.
Caleb was all of that you may love, or not love, Tuesday night against Boston College, which did not make a three ball as opposed to 10 for the Tar Heels of 29 attempts — which Hubert Davis did not like at all because it was almost half of their total shots in the strange 72-64 win.
Eight of the 19 misses from the arc were by Love, who had gone 0-for-7 at Louisville and whiffed on his first four against the Eagles. But, man, was he something to Love in the last six minutes that suddenly got nerve-rackingly tight.
BC had stayed annoyingly close in the first half of the sleepy game, and then played offense near-flawlessly in the second half, making 16 of 28 shots to close what had been a double-digit deficit to 56-55 on a second-chance basket by sophomore guard Jaeden Zackery.
The slumber had become near panic when Love turned fearless shooter and drained his second 3-pointer in a week from the top of the key. He followed with a layup in traffic and, after four free throws by R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot, hit a short jumper and delivered the dagger off Leaky Black’s third and fourth steals (18 in the last six games). Love’s reverse dunk provided a 10-point lead and caused the last of several crowd eruptions.
Of course, Bacot notched his 60th career double double to tie Billy Cunningham, making it look as easy as the Kangaroo Kid must have in three varsity seasons. Notably, BC’s late run came with AB on the bench for three minutes with no back-up help from Jalen Washington, who sprained his ankle in the shoot-around Tuesday morning.
There was so much more to the win for UNC (now 13-6 and 5-3 in the ACC). Davis continued his solid play with 18 points including four 3-pointers (he’s made 16 of his last 28 attempts). Pete Nance returned from a back injury by hitting long balls with his first two shots. D’Marco Dunn and Puff Johnson played 27 minutes and combined for seven points.
BC is a physical team that looks for contact everywhere on the floor, and 7-foot senior center Quinten Post had 17 points and 5 rugged rebounds before fouling out in the middle of Caleb’s heroics.
Yes, he would have loved to be in there at the end.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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