A 14-point, 16-rebound double-double from Armando Bacot led the UNC men’s basketball team past No. 16 Clemson in Littlejohn Coliseum, 65-55, on Saturday afternoon. The win moves Carolina to 3-0 in ACC play for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

Bacot now has 75 double-doubles in his decorated Tar Heel career, and his 14 points moved him past both Charles Scott and Al Wood into fifth place on Carolina’s all-time scoring leaderboard.

R.J. Davis tied for the team lead with 14 points, and Cormac Ryan added 10. It was another rough shooting day for the Tar Heels, who ended the game just 25-60 (41.7 percent) from the floor and just 10-28 (35.7 percent) in the second half.

But as in the win at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Carolina’s opponent was in even more of a shooting funk. Clemson, which came into the game shooting 49 percent as a team, ended the day at 36.2 percent. That includes an ugly 1-18 mark on three-pointers. The Tigers’ 39 percent mark from downtown as a team ranked 13th in the nation. Bacot held All-American candidate P.J. Hall in check, as Hall finished with only 10 points on 4-13 shooting before fouling out late. It was Ian Schieffelin who kept the Tigers in it for much of the afternoon, logging a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Carolina, which ranked in the country’s top 10 in free throw attempts per game, shot just three in the first half. Somehow, UNC made it to halftime with the game tied at 34 apiece. It appeared the Tigers were poised to build a sizable lead as they scored the first four points of the half, but the Tar Heels answered with an 11-3 run – powered by a pair of Davis three-pointers – to slingshot in front. Clemson would tie the game at 45, but would never lead again.

Clutch threes from Harrison Ingram, Paxson Wojcik (his first made three since the Arkansas game on November 24) and Seth Trimble midway through the second half helped the Tar Heels maintain the advantage, with a personal 7-0 run from Bacot moving the lead to 58-53 with 5:18 remaining. Hall knocked down a jumper to cut it to 58-55, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again. UNC ended the game on a 7-0 run, despite not scoring for the final 1:26.

The victory stands as Carolina’s fourth Quad 1 win of the season, already more than the team had all of last season. It’s also UNC’s third straight against Clemson. Next up for the Tar Heels is another challenging road game, as the team will visit NC State on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Mike Stewart

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