On a day of feasts, the No. 1 Tar Heels nearly found themselves with a famine. Carolina encountered a stern test in the opening game of the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, OR, just managing to fight off the homestanding Portland Pilots 89-81.

All five Tar Heel starters scored in double figures, led by graduate forward Pete Nance with 28 points on 8-13 shooting. Junior guard Caleb Love had his most efficient game of the season, scoring 23 points on 10-15 shooting, including 3-4 from three-point range. Love came into the day shooting below 20 percent from behind the arc.

Love and Nance were critical in UNC’s winning effort, one which saw the Tar Heels lead by just three points at halftime and trail by as many as five points in the second half. The Pilots took a 75-73 lead late in the half, but only made one more field goal in the final 4:32. In that span, the Tar Heels went on a 16-6 run, getting critical baskets from Armando Bacot, Leaky Black and R.J. Davis to ice the game.

Though Bacot had a relatively unproductive 11 points, he also grabbed 13 rebounds to notch his 51st career double-double. That mark ties him with an all-time UNC great: Antawn Jamison. Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham holds the Carolina record with 60.

The Tar Heels shot over 50 percent from the floor for the second time in five games this season, torching the nets to the tune of 31-58 (53.4 percent). The Pilots kept pace with hot shooting of their own in the first half, particularly from three — four different Portland players hit at least one shot from behind the arc, including Moses Wood, who hit four.

As Wood cooled off in the second half, so did the Pilots — he went 0-4 from downtown in the half, and Portland hit just five threes in that period. Nance caught fire in the same interval, scoring 20 of his 28 points, shooting 5-7 from the floor and hitting three threes. Bacot was also a force on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds in the half.

Now, UNC will face a much tougher test in Friday’s second round. The Tar Heels will face the winner of Iowa State and Villanova at 5:30 p.m. Either matchup would see Carolina trying to avenge a buzzer-beating NCAA Tournament defeat: the Tar Heels fell to the Cyclones at the horn in the second round in 2014, and lost on Kris Jenkins’ buzzer-beater in the 2016 championship game against the Wildcats.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Maggie Hobson

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