UNC basketball rallies to force overtime, Tar Heels beat No. 23 Ohio State in New York

Former North Carolina coach Roy Williams waited for an elevator out of Madison Square Garden after the Tar Heels 89-84 overtime win against No. 23 Ohio State when he joked to a contingent of media passing by that the Tar Heels “had it all along.”

Carolina (8-4) only led for five minutes in regulation and spent another 32 minutes and change chasing the Buckeyes, who held their biggest lead at 14 and led by 11 with seven minutes left in regulation.

And when the Heels trailed by two with 1.2 seconds to play, Armando Bacot wasn’t exactly confident they were headed for overtime as he watched assistant coach Jeff Lebo draw up a play.

The plan was to use both Bacot and Caleb Love as decoys in order to get Pete Nance the ball on the left side of the basket.

“I told coach Lebo when he drew it up, I’m like, ‘No chance,’ I didn’t really think — I didn’t know what was gonna happen honestly because it was kind of like a middle school-style play,” said Bacot who had game-highs with 28 points and 15 rebounds. “But it ended up working and getting Pete on a turn around jump shot. That’s going to be money every time.”

While he doubted the play, there was no doubt in his mind once they forced overtime that Carolina would win the game.

UNC coach Hubert Davis said the experience of their quadruple overtime loss to Alabama helped them against Ohio State.

“Being in those situations earlier this year, for this year’s team, I thought was really helpful in the late-clock, late-game situations, understanding what we needed to do in terms of our execution,” Davis said.

Carolina climbed back into the game thanks to its full court pressure. Ohio State worked its way to a 68-58 lead when the Heels started using it and they became energized by it. The Heels scored 27 points off Ohio State turnovers.

“It just gave us life, first half, me being in foul trouble, I just felt like it was kind of dead out there,” Leaky Black said. “But when I came in at halftime, we said it’s going to be a different second half and sure enough, we came out and got the win.”

Love gave the Heels the lead for good when he opened the extra period with a driving layup, which was part of their 44 points in the paint. They went ahead 83-79 after Bacot rebounded and scored off a Nance miss.

The Buckeyes did have a chance to tie it, trailing 87-84 with 24 seconds left. But Bruce Thornton missed a 3-pointer and forward Zed Key, whose improbable 3 helped stave off UNC in regulation, was called for a travel violation while being pressured by Bacot at the 3-point line in front of the Buckeyes’ bench.

As improbable as it seemed when Carolina was down double digits, it pulled out its first win against a major conference team this season.

“There’s no deficit or situation in the game that’s going to knock us down,” said Love, who scored 22 points and had a season-high seven assists. “We can come back from anything as long as we stay together and that’s what we did and we came out with the win.”

Two of Carolina’s biggest plays in the game came from players who had been struggling shooting in it.

Nance and Davis were a combined 5-for-8 from 3-point range in their win over The Citadel. But against the Buckeyes, they combined to miss their first nine attempts from behind the arc.

When the Heels had to have it, Davis scored eight of their final 15 points in regulation including his lone 3-pointer that gave them a 75-74 lead.

The White Plains, N.Y., native, only had nine points through the first 35 minutes of the game, but finished with 21 points in his first time playing in Madison Square Garden.

“For me personally, just to have that feeling of playing in the Garden and the game is on the line, you kind of want that,” Davis said. “Especially being in New York, where I’m from, my city, you kind of want to live for that moment, step up in that big moment, so that was going through my head.”

Nance missed all six of his 3-point attempts but the final play of regulation allowed him to take a fadeaway jumper that he’s most comfortable taking.

The Heels advanced the ball to halfcourt and called a timeout with 1.2 seconds left. Then the in-bounds pass went to Nance, who nailed the jumper as the buzzer sounded to send the game to overtime.

“I’ve never really made a shot like that,” said Nance who had eight points and 10 rebounds. “And to do it here, at the Garden, for North Carolina, was definitely a surreal moment for me.”