UNC outmuscles NC State. Three takeaways from No. 7 Tar Heels’ 67-54 win over Wolfpack
It was a gritty basketball game. It was, at times, a brutally physical game. Every pass seemed challenged, every basket was hard-earned.
It was N.C. State and North Carolina, and the No. 7 Tar Heels proved to be the better team Wednesday night, pulling away in the second half for a 67-54 victory at PNC Arena.
Both teams were 3-0 in the ACC. Both wanted to end the night in first place and leave their rivals beaten and behind them.
Had the Wolfpack (11-4 overall) shot the ball the better and not forced as many shots, it might have been a tighter game. But it missed 18 of its 20 3-pointers and shot 27.3% from the field in the game., said to be the lowest by the Pack against UNC in at least 70 years.
“I don’t know that it was a ‘signature win’ but it was another great collective effort by our players,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “I told them after the game they’re not playing good defense, but elite defense.”
D.J. Horne, the Pack’s leading scorer this year, had a miserable night. He could get little to drop, finishing with six points on 2-of-16 shooting and going 0-3 on 3’s.
Casey Morsell had 12 points — picking up his 1,000th career point — and D.J. Burns 11 for the Pack, which plays at Louisville on Saturday. But Morsell missed all five of his 3’s and Burns had four second-half points.
“We were affected on the defensive end tonight when our shots didn’t go in,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said.
The Tar Heels (12-3) did all they needed to do to win. Ranked in the top 20 nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency, UNC got 16 points from R.J. Davis, and kept the Pack from making any sustained offensive surges or get easy baskets in transition — UNC had 18 fast-break points to State’s 8.
The Heels’ Harrison Ingram, the transfer from Stanford, used his quickness around the basket to grab 19 rebounds as UNC closed with a 49-42 rebounding edge. It was the most rebounds by a Carolina player in the long history of the series.
The Heels led 30-28 at halftime as the Pack used various players on Davis, the ACC’s leading scorer, and limited him to five points while Armando Bacot was limited to 10 minutes after picking up a technical.
UNC led 48-46 in the second half before putting together a 19-4 spurt that had some Pack fans leaving early.
“In the second half we played offense at our pace,” Hubert Davis said. “In the first half, they sped us up. In the second half I felt like we were playing at our pace.”
Three takeaways from the game:
A rough, tough game
One thing’s for sure: the last time the Pack and Heels faced off 3-0 in the ACC, some 50 years ago, it wasn’t nearly as physical a game. Not even close.
This was not a game of finesse. This was a game of bodies crashing into bodies and elbows finding flesh.
UNC’s Bacot picked up a technical foul in the first half after putting a forearm into Ben Middlebrooks side and sending Middlebrooks tumbling to the court. The kicker: the two players were well behind the play as the Heels looked to run in transition.
It also was Bacot’s second personal foul, taking him out the rest of the opening half, limiting him to 10 minutes in the half. And getting an earful from his coach when he came to the bench as Hubert Davis was hot.
Referees Roger Ayers, Pat Driscoll and John Gaffney had their work cut out for them this night as it was apparent early neither team would shy away from contact and would test the whistles.
Bacot and the Pack’s Burns waged a war inside at times. Burns would look to back in with the ball and Bacot would use both arms to beat on his back. Burns made a few shots and Bacot got away with a few whacks to the back.
UNC had just two free throws in the opening half while State had 15. The Pack picked up many of those free throws as players looked to go one on one and drive to the basket. Some fouls were called and some drives resulted in turnovers.
Poise under pressure
The Tar Heels played a poised game, which had to be a product, in part, to playing at Clemson last weekend.
That was a big game for the Tigers. That was a physical fight, as well. The home crowd was aching for an upset.
The Heels won by 10. In the game before that, the Heels won by 13 at Pittsburgh. Going on the road in the ACC can be challenging, but UNC’s trips to Clemson and Pitt prepared them for Wednesday and the loud sold-out crowd at PNC Arena, where the Pack was 8-0 this season.
“Our guys have gained strength from being in those situations,” Hubert Davis said. “I believe the experience in the early season has given us the confidence to step into environments like this and be able to execute on both ends.”
For Pack, a tough one to watch (again)
The Pack’s Horne said he probably watched a replay of last year’s game at PNC Arena — a 77-69 Pack win — about 10 times to get a feel for what the atmosphere might be like Wednesday.
Horne and the Pack will not want to watch the replay of this one. Too many bad shots. Too many botched plays.
The effort was there. The fight was there. But the efficiency was not.
The Heels won a number of the 50/50 balls coaches emphasize. They hit the offensive boards. They made enough shots.
Freshman guard Elliot Cadeau would slip in on a drive for a basket or find the open man. Ingram was all over the boards. Seth Trimble gave UNC some solid minutes. Bacot got going in the second half, his dunk with six minutes left giving UNC a 61-48 lead.
“I think the biggest thing about their team and what makes them different is their role players are really playing,” Keatts said. “You look at Ingram, his numbers were great. He made winning plays.
“I just think the pieces around Armando and R.J. (Davis) are really good. They’re older, they’re solid and they know how to play. And they made timely shots when they had to.”
The Pack tried to match the Heels’ team play but couldn’t, not in the second half. All too often it was Horne missing a 3 or Burns trying to muscle inside or Taylor trying to make something happen but come up empty.
