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Don’t you feel sort of like order has been restored?
In the 25th meeting between Carolina and N.C. State at the PNC Arena, the Tar Heels won for the 19th time. But since the arch rivalry has gotten more volatile over the last few years in all sports, there was very little ho-hum about UNC’s decisive 67-54 win that was one for the record books.
After a first half when both teams shot like they were wearing blindfolds, Carolina pulled away with a 15-2 run for its third straight ACC road conquest that, thanks to the Heels’ win at Clemson and Florida State’s upset of Wake Forest, leaves one team standing all alone in first place at 4-0: the one wearing baby blue while holding its last three host opponents under 60 points for the first time in 25 years.
It was Hubert Davis’ fourth win in five games against State as a head coach, two of them in Raleigh. Bill Guthridge had one the year PNC opened in 2000, Matt Doherty had one and the other 15 belong to Roy Williams. So this game turned out to be like old times with a lot of new faces.
Harrison Ingram picked the perfect night to haul down a career-high 19 rebounds, the most ever for a Tar Heels against the Wolfpack. Armando Bacot has had 18 twice and Billy (the 6-5 Kangaroo Kid) Cunningham 18 once in 1965.
Ingram was a beast on the boards, grabbing 10 misses in the first half while Bacot sat with two fouls, the second a debatable flagrant call when he pushed off the State big who was fouling him on the way down the court.
And Ingram had his own contact with a Wolfpacker wearing red, the esteemed alum and farmer turned politician Wendell Murphy sitting behind the TV crew when Ingram leaped over the table trying to save the ball.
He didn’t save it, but the Stanford transfer smartly saved his team that was struggling getting the ball in the basket only 38 percent of the time. A faster-paced second half took most of the drama out of this one, as the Pack never recovered its shooting eye and could not mount a comeback like last year in the same building.
State shot 27 percent for the game and 2 of 21 from the arc, which is 9.5 percent. Clemson shot 7.1 from outside last Saturday. Davis said his players “weren’t playing good defense, they were playing elite defense.”
The 7th-ranked Tar Heels are sure to poll jump if they can beat Syracuse on Saturday’s long-awaited return to the Smith Center. No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 all lost this week. So Carolina could be in the top five with its fifth Quad 1 win of the season.
Keep driving hard, but the NCAA bubble is in the rearview mirror.
Featured image via Associated Press/Karl B. DeBlaker
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