UNC opened its run in the 2020 ACC Tournament with a bang on Tuesday night at the Greensboro Coliseum, rolling to a dominant 78-56 blowout victory over the No. 11 seed Virginia Tech Hokies.
Garrison Brooks led the Tar Heels (14-18, 7-14 ACC) with a game-high 20 points, while freshman Armando Bacot added a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds as the two UNC big men feasted inside against a Virginia Tech team (16-16, 7-14 ACC) lacking the size to give much resistance.
Senior guard Brandon Robinson added 17 points thanks to a 5-for-6 mark from three-point range and Cole Anthony had 10 points as the fourth Tar Heel to reach double figures.
UNC led the game nearly wire-to-wire as it turned a six-point halftime advantage into a 25-point blowout in the second half.
Cole Anthony had 10 points in Tuesday’s win over Virginia Tech at the ACC Tournament, making him one of four Tar Heels to score in double figures. (Photo via Todd Melet)
On the defensive end, the Tar Heels held Virginia Tech to 29 percent shooting from the floor and only eight made baskets from inside the three-point line.
Needing five wins in five days to win the conference title and avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010, head coach Roy Williams’ team did everything it needed to do to get this week off to a good start.
“Very happy to still be here,” Williams told reporters afterwards. “I told the kids, ‘Let’s play as hard as we can play, as well as we can play.’ And at the end, somebody may let us stay around and play another one. And I thought that’s what we did.”
It was the second meeting of the season between the Tar Heels and Hokies, with Virginia Tech having won the first game in Blacksburg in double overtime. Neither Anthony or Robinson played that night, as Garrison Brooks poured in a career-high 35 points—marking the beginning of his incredible surge during the back half of the season, which ultimately led to him being named the ACC’s Most Improved Player.
The lesson on Tuesday was that this is an incredibly different UNC team at this point in the year, a long way from the group that was stocking up on losses left and right early on in conference play.
There’s still plenty of work left to do in Greensboro for the Tar Heels to pull off a feat no ACC team has ever done, but it’s safe to say not too many teams in the league are playing as well as UNC has been over the last three weeks.
A date with No. 6 seed Syracuse looms on Wednesday night, which should provide the Tar Heels with extra confidence having just defeated the Orange convincingly on the road less than two weeks ago.
“It just speaks volumes about this team,” Brooks said, about Tuesday’s win. “We all care about each other. We all have one goal. And that’s to win this tournament. But we have to take it game by game, and we need all hands on deck to be able to do that.”
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will tip-off against Syracuse on Wednesday at 9 p.m. In the first meeting between the two teams this season, UNC defeated the Orange 92-79.
Game Notes:
- Garrison Brooks extended his streak of games with at least 20 points to seven, the longest such streak by any UNC player since Tyler Hansbrough in the 2008-09 season.
- UNC won the rebounding battle against the Hokies 45-30 and outscored them in the paint 32-12.
- Virginia Tech’s last lead of the game was when the score was 4-3 with over 18 minutes remaining in the first half.
- This was UNC’s first game ever as a No. 14 seed in the ACC Tournament. Prior to this year, the lowest seed the Tar Heels had ever held was the No. 10 seed in 2010–which was also the last time UNC has missed the NCAA Tournament.
Cover photo via Todd Melet
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