UNC basketball slide continues, Tar Heels fall to Indiana 77-65 in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

When No. 18 North Carolina talked in the preseason of repeating last season’s run to the Final Four, it wasn’t supposed to include a repeat of last year’s losses in all of its marquee non-conference matchups.

The Tar Heels (5-3) are well on their way to duplicating that aspect after a 77-65 loss at Indiana Wednesday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Heels shot a season-low 33.9 percent in losing their third straight game.

As poorly as Carolina shot the ball, trailing by as many as 15 in the second half, it chipped away and had a chance to make it a two possession game because of IU fouls that piled up.

UNC guard Caleb Love made one of two free throws to cut the deficit to 59-52 with 6:39 left. The Heels had the ball and could have cut it closer. But Trey Galloway tipped the ball from behind when R.J. Davis went around a screen and received a cross-court pass for a layup.

With the Hoosiers ahead 61-52, Carolina did not get closer than eight in the remaining six minutes of the game.

“One of the things, it’s not necessarily we’re turning the ball over a lot, but when we turn the ball over, it’s a pick six almost every time,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis, of the Hoosiers ability to convert those turnovers into made baskets. “We turn the ball over 10 times they had 17 points on 10 turnovers. So that’s point to the paint and that was the issue tonight.”

IU forward Trayce Jackson-Davis scored a game-high 21 points and set the tone for the Hoosiers’ scoring in the paint. They outscored Carolina 50-24 in points in the paint, which marked a season high for an opponent in both points and the 26-point margin.

Jackson-Davis was too strong for Pete Nance to handle on the blocks and too agile for Armando Bacot to keep up with, shooting 9 of 16 from the field. If it weren’t for foul trouble, the damage would have been substantially more.

“Anytime that they needed a shot, they can get it to him and they could create a shot whether they made it or not,” Hubert Davis said. “I felt like through him, they can get the shot that they want on pretty much every possession.”

That’s what Bacot usually provides for Carolina when he’s the focal point of the offense. But he was clearly hobbled by injuries against the Hoosiers.

Bacot injured his right ankle in the quadruple overtime loss to Alabama on Sunday, in which he sat out the final two overtimes unable to play on it. Shortly into the game on Wednesday, Bacot had a new injury to fight through when he said he heard his right shoulder pop after a collision on defense just four minutes into the game.

He returned, but was bothered by the shoulder, missing his first five shots from the floor. He finally scored a basket with 1:35 left.

“I like to work on the left block and I really couldn’t get my bumps and create any separation and then too in the post defense I couldn’t (extend) really with the right arm because it created too much tension so it hindered me in that way.”

Carolina’s problem offensively through much of its start to this season was not going through Bacot enough on the blocks. Against the Hoosiers, they were intent on establishing him inside and, because of his injuries, he couldn’t deliver. Bacot was more effective when the Heels drove and dished in the second half, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

UNC forward Pete Nance led the team with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 11 points in a row and accounted for half of the Heels first 22 points, but only took five shots in the second half. Love and Davis struggled shooting again from the field, combining to go 9-for-27 from the field.

IU’s man-to-man defense kept Carolina from getting into any kind of rhythm offensively.

“They kind of get out in the passing lanes, their perimeter guys they sat in the gaps a little bit, so it was hard for us and they were denying as well,” R.J. Davis said. “So that kind of made it tough and their physicality kind of bothered us.”

IU freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino appeared to be headed to the list of guards who have torched the Heels recently. Iowa State’s Caleb Grill had 31 points and seven 3-pointers. Alabama’s Mark Sears had 24 points and seven 3s. Hood-Schifino started off the game scoring the Hoosiers first seven points and 12 of their first 19 while being defended by three different players.

His shots dried up when UNC put Leaky Black on him. He didn’t score for nearly the last nine minutes of the first half and finished with 14 points. When Black switched off Xavier Johnson, the former Pitt transfer started scoring for IU. Johnson finished with 20 points on 6-for-12 shooting.

“We’re going through a little adversity right now, we just got to overcome it,” Love said. “We were in the same position last year, we lost to Tennessee and Purdue back-to-back and so we just have to fix it. We can’t hang our heads, we got to stay positive.”