North Carolina’s Armando Bacot (5) looks for room as N.C. State’s Manny Bates (15) defends during the first half of N.C. State’s game against UNC at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, December 22, 2020.
For the sixth time in the last seven games, the 17th-ranked Tar Heels fell behind by double digits in the first half on Tuesday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh.
This time the slow start was too much to overcome as UNC had its five-game win streak against NC State snapped in a 79-76 loss.
Down by as many as 17 points late in the opening period, the Tar Heels (5-3, 0-1 ACC) once again showed the fight they’ve displayed in recent outings.
Strong play inside from sophomore forward Armando Bacot—who finished with a team-high 16 points—helped UNC close the gap to seven points before halftime, while a variety of contributors chipped in to get the Tar Heels within one point with just over eight minutes remaining in the second half.
NC State (5-1, 1-0 ACC) responded with a 14-2 run to extend the lead up to 13 points, but again UNC clawed back and earned a chance to tie the game in the final seconds.
Back-to-back three-pointers by freshman guards R.J. Davis and Caleb Love couldn’t find the target, however, allowing NC State to grab a rare victory in the rivalry for just the fifth time in the Roy Williams era.
“I think when we got it to a one-point game, about two or three [possessions] in a row we took bad shots,” Williams told reporters afterwards. “You can’t do those kinds of things.
“And, you know, State, we’ve been hammering them pretty good for several years,” the coach added. “They’re tired of that. The difference in the game, to me, was their sense of urgency early in the game.”
Both Davis and Love scored 11 points apiece for the Tar Heels. Together the duo was just 1-for-8 from three-point range, though, while UNC connected on just two of its 12 attempts as a team.
On the other end, NC State converted eight of its 17 three-pointers and appeared a lot more fluid offensively.
Struggles with perimeter shooting plagued the Tar Heels on the final possession, but have also been an issue all season long.
“If you start pointing fingers at one or two players, it hurts your team,” Williams said, when asked about Davis and Love’s shooting woes. “Everybody’s got to do a better job of getting shots. They were 5-for-14, but so was Garrison Brooks.
“But it is something that we’ve got to shoot the ball better,” he continued. “And we’ve got to do a better job with our shot selection.”
Devon Daniels poured in a game-high 21 points and kick-started the late game-changing run for NC State, which also received a huge boost from freshman guard Shakeel Moore. In just 15 minutes of action off the bench, Moore racked up 17 points and made three of his four three-pointers.
The Wolfpack defense also lived up to its reputation by forcing UNC into 18 turnovers, another issue the Tar Heels have had major problems with to this point.
Together, those performances were enough to take advantage of a UNC team still clearly seeking its identity.
In typical early-season fashion, the Tar Heel head coach blamed nobody besides himself for the loss.
“Roy Williams has got to do a better job,” he said. “Their head coach did a heck of a lot better than Roy Williams did.”
Up Next:
After a short break for the holidays, the Tar Heels are set to return to action on Dec. 30 in Atlanta to face Georgia Tech. That game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.
Game Notes:
- This was the ACC opener for both teams.
- UNC’s 17-point deficit in the first half was its largest of the season.
- Andrew Platek drew three offensive fouls in the first half. The most by any player in the Roy Williams era is four by Tyler Hansbrough against Kansas in the 2008 Final Four.
- This was the earliest into the year that these two rivals have played one another since Nov. 30, 1979 when freshman James Worthy and the Tar Heels defeated the Wolfpack by a score of 97-84.
Photo via Scott Sharpe (ACC Media)
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The pattern exists with Roy and UNC. He absolutely will not call timeouts when they are needed to slow the other team’s momentum or just change the rhythm of the game and he will not start the shooters that can score from the outside because he thinks Leaky is so much better on defense. If we had some threats from deep out there all the time then the defense might open up for the UNC bigs to get open and score underneath. Every team that has played UNC for the last 2 years has been able to know the UNC game plan as well as the UNC players themselves. This is terrible coaching and I have been a UNC for many many years but I have witnessed way to many games get out of hand against teams that we could have beaten had we stopped their huge runs in the first half. Brooks has had the worst start of the season than anyone could imagine and yet Roy just keeps him in the lineup and will not give enough playing time to the freshman bigs that are hustling and actually playing better at times than the starters. Last night’s game should have been easily won had Roy left Bacot and Sharpe or Kessler in there for the last 3 minutes plus. Oh well, same old Roy with zero clue as to what to do at crunch time.