Carolina was an underdog Monday night at Notre Dame, a tough place to play against a team that had been trending upward. The Tar Heels lost all right but did it in a way that makes you think somebody up there doesn’t like them.
With Brandon Robinson back in the lineup, they looked for 32 minutes like the team they’ve wanted to be all along and one that would become a very tough out down the stretch.
Then it happened again, blowing a double-digit lead in the second half for the fifth time this season and lost by a sixth buzzer-beater in the last five weeks. Their sixth straight defeat – UNC’s first such streak since 2002 – came with a slightly different version of heartbreak from other last-second losses.
North Carolina has lost 6 straight games, its longest losing streak of the Roy Williams era. The last time UNC lost 6 straight was in 2001-02.
Roy Williams lost 6 straight games one other time in his career (1989 with Kansas, lost 8 straight). pic.twitter.com/Kme2EJHss9
But the pain was no less palpable. This time, it wasn’t the three-ball, which Carolina shot 20 times and made 8, or from the free-throw line, sinking 12 of 14. Three players scored in double figures and two had 10 rebounds. But it was similar to the Duke debacle because everything that had to go wrong to lose did.
Leading by 15 points with 8½ minutes left, still 9 with 4:33 showing and 5 with 90 seconds remaining, Carolina combined good plays and big shots with bad mistakes and again did not get the right bounce of the ball, needed rebound or call from the officials. It all allowed the thoroughly outplayed Irish to win on a second-chance 3-pointer with 2.4 on the clock.
Cole Anthony played one of his best floor games in college, made two big free throws, a tough turnaround and a clutch 3-pointer in the waning minutes. But he fired an airball on UNC’s last real possession, which along with another missed call by the refs gave the ball back to Notre Dame for the winner.
Robinson, a welcome sight, made a 3-pointer to provide the last 9-point lead, then followed with a turnover and foul that stopped the clock and sent the Irish to the line. Carolina couldn’t get the ball to Garrison Brooks (22 points) over the last eight minutes. Armando Bacot turned it over on an obvious illegal screen, and the bigs who out-rebounded Notre Dame by 16 boards could not grab the last crucial carom.
As a result, Carolina fell further into the abyss.
