Jaelyn Withers scored a career-high 21 points and Ven-Allen Lubin posted a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double to help UNC ease past Notre Dame 76-56 in the second round of the ACC Tournament Wednesday afternoon in Charlotte.

All of Withers’ points came from long distance, as the Charlotte native shot 7-10 on three-pointers (setting a new ACC Tournament record for made threes by a Tar Heel) to fire up his hometown crowd. Withers had never made more than four threes in a single game in his career.

“It’s always great to come back home,” Withers said. “It’s exhilarating. Being in my hometown, having a pretty good night like that, I think that’s something that anybody would want.”

“For him to have this type of game… that’s special,” said R.J. Davis, who finished with 13 points and three made threes of his own. “That’s like me or Ian [Jackson] playing at [Madison Square Garden]. This was his Garden game.”

As a team, UNC shot 13-28 (46.4 percent) on threes and 28-58 (48.3 percent) overall. Its defense held the Fighting Irish to just 20-62 (32.3 percent) overall and limited star guard Markus Burton to 11 points. Burton averaged more than 21 points per game this season. Both Drake Powell and Seth Trimble guarded Burton throughout the game.

“We just felt like starting the game off with Drake would make it even more difficult for [Burton] to be able to score,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “I thought Drake’s length bothered him and made him work a little bit harder than usual.”

UNC led by 14 points inside 10 minutes and extended that lead to as large as 21 points late in the first half. The Fighting Irish closed to within 12 points early in the second, but never put the UNC lead in any serious danger. The Tar Heels led by 24 late in the game before taking out its normal rotation players.

Lubin’s double-double is his second as a Tar Heel, both of which have come in the team’s last three games. His 17 points were also just two shy of tying his season high. Lubin, who began his college career at Notre Dame, stuffed the stat sheet against his former team with two blocks, two steals and an assist. Half of his 10 rebounds came on the offensive end.

“Ven did a good job of making his presence be felt,” said R.J. Davis. “He was just everywhere.”

The Tar Heels are now 21-12 on the season. They will face No. 4 seed Wake Forest in the tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. The Demon Deacons beat the Tar Heels 67-66 in Winston-Salem on January 21.

“That was a game we should’ve won,” Davis said. “They’re a really good team, and we’ve got to come with our A game.”

 

Featured image via Todd Melet. For a full photo gallery of the game, click here.

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