Caleb Love sure is hard not to like.
After another infuriating performance of forced shots and unforced turnovers, Love lived up to his name in the last minute of Carolina’s ugly and eventually beautiful win at Clemson.
Down by one point and unable to penetrate the clawing Clemson defense, Love launched a had-to-have-it long ball from the left side. It turned around his rough night by going in smoothly.
Thirty-three seconds later, with the score tied in the waning moments of regulation, Love turned the corner at the top of the key and headed downhill to the basket. Instead of putting up a contested layup or settling for one of his floaters, he looked over his left shoulder and found Brady Manek coming down the lane for the winning layup.
Just before that, Love had ended an important possession by stepping out of bounds on the sideline, his fifth turnover of the game. He shot 4-for-12, but his two 3-pointers in the second half gave the Tar Heels the lead each time in a see-saw battle that wasn’t pretty but had the intensity of an elimination game.
For Carolina, it was critical to post another Quad 2 road win to stay alive for an NCAA tournament bid; for Clemson, 12-11 and 4-8 in the ACC, it will be hard to finish with a winning record and salvage a spot in the NIT with Duke, Notre Dame, Florida State and Wake Forest still to play.
The Tar Heels fell behind by 11 points early but held the Tigers scoreless for four minutes to take the lead by halftime. Despite shooting 61 percent in the second half, including 5 of 12 from the arc, their five starters in double figures including Armando Bacot’s 18th double-double of the season had trouble containing Clemson’s timely shooters and keeping them off the foul line where they finished 19-of-21.
Hubert Davis played basically six guys, with R.J. Davis and Leaky Black combining for 71 minutes without either committing a turnover. Kerwin Walton got 14 minutes and scored 7 important points. But the team looked fatigued from the disheartening loss to Duke 72 hours earlier. Manek, for example, may have played his worst game at UNC following one of his best but was there at the end for what may turn out to be a very significant basket.
Fortunately, the Heels have three full days before hosting Florida State Saturday at 2 in another must-win on the road to the Road to the Final Four.
Photo via Jim Hawkins/247Sports.
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