In a game in which 52 total fouls were called and three Tar Heels fouled out, Villanova muscled past the UNC men’s basketball team, 83-81, in overtime at the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals on Thursday. It’s Carolina’s first loss of the season.

Senior guard R.J. Davis led the way for UNC with 23 points, but the game’s high scorer was Villanova’s Eric Dixon, who tallied a career high with 34 points on 11-19 shooting.  No other Wildcat scored more than 16. Thirty-two of Villanova’s 83 points came on free throws, with the Wildcats shooting 32-36 (88.9 percent) at the line on the afternoon. Carolina made several trips of its own, but shot just 16-23 (69.6 percent) on its tries.

Two of UNC’s starters – Jae’Lyn Withers (making his first start of the season) and Harrison Ingram – were among the Tar Heel trio to foul out. Ingram finished his day with 20 points on just 6-8 shooting, but had to watch the game’s final minutes from the bench. One of his five fouls came on a double technical call after Davis suffered a hard fall.

Freshman guard Elliot Cadeau fouled out in the extra session, hitting a Villanova player’s hand as he was shooting a three. It was just that kind of afternoon for Carolina, which led by as many as nine points in the first half but were never able to pull away. In fact, UNC trailed by three in the final seconds, but a Cormac Ryan triple from the corner tied the game and forced overtime. Davis had a look to win the game as the buzzer sounded, but his off-balance three missed.

Carolina briefly took the lead in the overtime, but Villanova went ahead by five with less than 30 seconds remaining after Davis missed a layup and the Wildcats made more free throws. The Tar Heels kept it interesting to the bitter end, as Ryan intercepted a Wildcat inbound pass and drew a foul with UNC down three and two seconds left, but he was not able to corral a rebound after intentionally missing his second free throw.

The loss means Carolina will remain without a Battle 4 Atlantis championship in three tries (2014, 2019 and 2023). The Tar Heels will be back to play the third-place game on Friday at 1 p.m. against either Memphis or Arkansas.

 

Featured image via UNC Basketball on Twitter

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