UNC basketball takes care of business. Tar Heels top Wagner to open NCAA Tournament
One of the small joys of early-round NCAA Tournament games are the quiet moments that play out behind the scenes, in the shadows before tipoff, during a time of unrivaled anticipation and hope. And so it was here on Thursday afternoon in the bowels of the Spectrum Center, with North Carolina warming up in a space near the Wagner band, and mascot.
It made for a humorous juxtaposition, the mighty Tar Heels, the No. 1 seed in the West Region, going through their pregame stretches and calisthenics while someone in a large, green Seahawk costume, with a gray shirt with a large W on it, stood idly by in the background, as if to do some last minute scouting. Only in March.
The NCAA Tournament brought together these disparate schools — the Tar Heels, with their Final Four and national championship aspirations; the Wagner Seahawks, the Northeast Conference champions who were already riding a miracle wave — and invited them to put on a show.
A masterpiece, it was not. Yet there was a bit of drama, what with UNC attempting to pull away, Wagner fighting back, UNC attempting to put it away, Wagner fighting back until, finally, the Tar Heels did manage some separation in their 90-62 victory, in front a full arena with no shortage of light blue, and people who’d been waiting for a while for something to get loud about.
They received it, at last, during a sequence midway through the second half that included a couple of 3-pointers from RJ Davis and Harrison Ingram, and then a Jae’lyn Withers dunk, on an alley-oop off of a fastbreak. Suddenly, UNC’s lead was 20 points. Suddenly, a game whose outcome was somehow still in doubt only moments earlier finally felt more settled.
Davis, the ACC Player of the Year and consensus All-American, led UNC with 22 points. Armando Bacot finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds — his sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament game with at least 15 rebounds, dating to the UNC’s memorable postseason run in 2022.
Photos: North Carolina defeats Wagner in first round NCAA Tournament action
It took a while for the Tar Heels to find some comfort against Wagner, despite the circumstances. UNC arrived in Charlotte earlier this week wanting to rid itself of any traces of a possible hangover from its defeat against N.C. State in the ACC Tournament championship game. Wagner, meanwhile, arrived here with more hopes and dreams than available, healthy bodies.
The Seahawks played the final several months of the season with seven players. They finished sixth in the nine-team NEC, and then became the first team in the history of that league to win three straight road games to win the conference tournament. Then they outlasted Howard, a fellow No. 16 seed, in a tournament play-in game on Tuesday night in Dayton. Then they flew to Charlotte.
It was something of a small miracle Wagner kept it as close as it was, for a little while. The Tar Heels didn’t stretch their lead into double figures until seven and a half minutes remained in the first half, when Bacot, the fifth-year senior forward, rebounded his own missed dunk for the putback. And even then, the Seahawks proved resilient.
Or, perhaps equally as accurate, UNC’s sloppy start persisted. The Tar Heels committed six first-half turnovers (which Wagner turned into nine points) and missed four layups and a dunk. It was not necessarily the kind of inspired start that portended a deep tournament run or more banner-hanging in the Smith Center.
The start of the second half didn’t unfold, either, the way UNC hoped. Little by little, though, the Tar Heels, with talent and size advantages all over the court, began to assert themselves. They built a 15-point lead, their largest at the time, with 16 minutes remaining. Soon after, it was an 18-point lead, after an RJ Davis layup, with a little less than 14 minutes to play.
There again, though, the Seahawks refused to fold. Julian Brown and Tyje Kelton made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, and UNC’s lead was 12. For long stretches here Thursday, including around then, UNC coach Hubert Davis wore an expression that conveyed something along the lines of, “Can we get it together, guys?”
His team labored, at times, to score against Wagner’s zone. It made sloppy mistakes. Bacot missed a dunk, as he has been prone to doing lately. Elliot Cadeau, the freshman point guard who has played so well for the majority of the season, continued to try to break through a slump that has arrived at a most inopportune time.
In other words, even amid what turned out to be a relatively stress-free victory, Hubert Davis was left with a lot of things to address. The Tar Heels, a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2019, improved to 33-2 in the round of 64, since the NCAA Tournament’s expansion in 1985. They advanced to play against Michigan State, a No. 9 seed, on Saturday.
The Spartans, an annual tough out in March under head coach Tom Izzo, advanced with a 69-51 against Mississippi State in the earlier game in Charlotte. After Michigan State finished its victory, the Spectrum Center began to fill. By tipoff between UNC and Wagner, there weren’t many empty seats. Those hoping to see a show, though, might’ve been left disappointed — at least for a while.
The Tar Heels had to work for it on Thursday. The prevailed with a margin that belied the fight it took to create it. The margin error was there for UNC on Thursday. Now it grows more narrow.
