Another chance for a quality win went up in smoke for the UNC basketball team Saturday night, as Wake Forest used red-hot shooting in the second half to eviscerate Tar Heels in a 98-76 win.
Final.#CarolinaFamily | @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/ohGblgUGHm
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 23, 2022
It’s the second straight loss by 20 or more points for UNC, and their fourth loss by 17 or more this season. It’s also the first time the Tar Heels have lost consecutive games since the Hall of Fame Tip-Off in November. In addition, UNC has now lost three straight road games.
“This past week wasn’t a good week for us,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “And so we can sit here and whine and complain and point fingers and make excuses, or you can get back up and you can keep fighting.”
Though Wake Forest’s All-ACC candidate Alondes Williams dominated headlines leading up to the game, it was the Deacons’ Jake LaRavia who stole the show in Winston-Salem. Everything LaRavia touched turned to gold against the Tar Heels, with the junior guard going off for a career-high 31 points on 9-13 shooting.
“We didn’t have anybody that could guard LaRavia,” Davis said. “He controlled the entire game. He punched us in the mouth.”
The Deacons also benefited from a personal 9-0 run from forward Damari Monsanto, whose three consecutive three-pointers in the second half gave Wake Forest a 71-52 lead and put the game out of reach. Monsanto’s hot streak contributed to a 16-28 shooting clip in the second half for the Demon Deacons.
UNC had no such luck on offense, once again struggling mightily from behind the three-point line. The Tar Heels came into the night ranked No. 25 in the country in three-point shooting, yet hit only six of their 28 attempts against Wake Forest. The two-point shooting wasn’t much better; the Tar Heels missed 15 layups.
“We know we’re better than what we’ve been playing like,” said sophomore guard Caleb Love, who finished with just nine points on 3-15 shooting. “And it’s only us that can change it. It’s nothing that Coach Davis can tell us or any of the other coaches can do for us. It’s on us. And we’ve gotta play better.”
One of Carolina’s lone bright spots offensively was once again junior forward Armando Bacot. UNC’s own All-ACC candidate struggled at times from the field, yet still amassed his ninth straight double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, six of them on the offensive end. Offensive rebounding was the only area where UNC clearly had an advantage Saturday night. Carolina held a 29-5 advantage in second-chance points by the end of the night and out-rebounded the Demon Deacons by 12, but, as the score indicates, that had little effect on the game’s outcome.
Wake Forest turned 11 Carolina turnovers into 21 points of their own, and held a dominant 30-2 advantage in fast-break points. There was little question as to who the better team was on the night, and for the second straight game, an ACC opponent was able to empty its bench against the Tar Heels as time wound down. Between the Miami game and Saturday night’s loss, it’s the first time Carolina has lost consecutive games by 20 points or more since the 2001-02 season, when the Tar Heels finished 8-20.
Perhaps the most alarming statistic of the night is this: using the NCAA’s NET rating system, UNC has still yet to earn a Quad 1 win this season. The 12-6 Tar Heels are 0-5 with Quad 1 victories on the line. As the NET ratings stand, Carolina will have three more opportunities to earn such a win: twice against Duke and once on the road at Virginia Tech. Quad 1 wins are certainly not the only tool the NCAA uses to select at-large bids for the tournament, but they do play a major role in determining which teams escape from the bubble. Officially, UNC hasn’t missed an NCAA Tournament since the 2009-10 season, though would have had the 2020 tournament been played.
Love, though, just wants to focus on the next game up.
“I’ll worry about that later,” he said. “Right now, I’m worried about this team. I’m focused on what we’ve gotta do to turn this thing around.”
Featured image via The Winston-Salem Journal/Allison Lee
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Coaching possibly? Hmmmm… Would a Wes Miller coached team have lost 4 games by 17 points SO FAR? Would a Wes Miller coached team always be blamed for lack of effort? Hmmmmm….It’s a good thing we have a boatload of All Americans on our team or we might not have won a game. But at least baseball is right around the corner. But unfortunately so is Mack and football!