All season long the UNC men’s basketball team has made a habit out of falling behind early and then having to scramble back in the second half.
It worked Thursday night against Virginia Tech and two weeks ago at home against Florida State, but the No. 2 seed Seminoles wouldn’t allow it to happen again on Friday night in Greensboro–holding on to defeat the No. 6 seed Tar Heels 69-66 in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.
A lackluster first half showing by the Tar Heels (18-10) allowed the Seminoles (16-5) to build an 11-point lead by halftime.
As per usual, UNC came out of the break looking like an entirely different team. A trio of three-pointers by freshman guard Kerwin Walton helped the Tar Heels fight back to tie the game early in the second half, while forwards Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe combined to give UNC a five-point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
“I think we showed some toughness in last night’s game particularly when we were down and then they fought back,” head coach Roy Williams said afterwards. “And then we did the same thing in the game tonight and didn’t make enough plays in the last three minutes to win the game.”
Following Sharpe’s jumper that put the Tar Heels up by five, UNC went ice cold from the floor–making just four shots the rest of the game.
Florida State wasn’t exactly making everything on the other end, but the Seminoles did just enough to claw back and take back control of the game–particularly at the free-throw line.
The Tar Heels took a slim lead with just over three minutes remaining when R.J. Davis made three free throws. That was short-lived, however, as Florida State scored seven of the game’s final nine points to escape with the victory.
“Bottom line is late in the game their defense was much stronger than our offense was,” Williams said. “We did not get a good shot at all after R.J. made the three free throws to put us up. We never got another good shot.”
Freshman point guard Caleb Love led UNC with 13 points, although his 4-for-14 shooting performance was emblematic of the whole team’s struggle to make shots against the physical Florida State defense.
UNC shot just under 34 percent for the game, with Bacot’s 12 points and Walton’s 11 representing the only other Tar Heels to reach double figures.
“We’ve done some good things,” Williams said. “But right now the pain and negative feelings you have about letting one slip by that you had a chance to win is a lot more dominating than any of the other thoughts.”
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will now wait until Sunday to find out their NCAA Tournament destination. The official tournament selection show is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on CBS.
Game Notes:
- UNC shot just 26 percent in the first half and compiled seven turnovers compared to only two assists and eight made field goals.
- Florida State was led by 17 points and 11 rebounds from center Balsa Koprivica, who more than held his own against UNC’s talented frontcourt.
- With the Tar Heel loss, Saturday will be just the second time ever that the ACC Championship will not include a team from North Carolina and first since 1990.
FINAL BOX SCORE
Photo via ACC Media
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Plain and simple fact is we had a lineup working in the 2nd half to actually regain the lead and Roy brings Brooks back in there and he just doesn’t fit well with the game we were playing because he is too slow and he cannot play defense under the basket as well as Sharpe. Why would you change what is working and why would you bring in anyone at that point when we seemed to have found a good offense and defense that was working against Florida State. Roy isn’t a coach anymore he just moves players in and out in hopes that they will perform. Walton hit a 3 in the second half and then Roy takes him out and finally when he puts him back in Walton hits 2 more 3’s. He gives Kessler 9 minutes of playing time and Brooks had 27 minutes and that tells the story for me. Roy evidently hasn’t been paying attention to film or the actual game we are playing at the time. We have given away too many games that we all know with the right coaching we would have easily won. Like Coach K, Roy needs to retire. I’ll take my chances with the new head coach cause this one is done.