UNC men's basketball bounces back from Kentucky loss to run past Appalachian State

The band Chumbawamba sings, “I get knocked down, but I get up again.”

And on Tuesday night, the North Carolina men’s basketball did exactly that with its 70-50 win over Appalachian State in the Dean Smith Center. The win comes days after getting knocked in the mouth in a 98-69 loss against Kentucky. 

The Tar Heels came into its game against the Mountaineers and forced them into uncomfortable shots, reverting to its old defensive principles. While Kentucky went 39-for-72 against UNC, Appalachian State could only manage a 31.3 percent shooting clip.

“We wanted to come into this game today playing with energy, effort and toughness — that was our main model coming into this game,” sophomore guard RJ Davis said. “We felt like last game, we didn’t play with those three things at all, so coming into this game, we just wanted to play Carolina basketball.”

It wasn’t just the defense that bounced back, it was the offense as well. After not having any players shoot over 70 percent in the loss against Kentucky, the two leading scorers for the Tar Heels — Davis and junior forward Armando Bacot — both reached that mark on Tuesday, scoring 15 and 16 points, respectively.

In addition to making seven out of his nine shots, Bacot grabbed 10 rebounds and recorded his ACC-leading eighth double-double of the season.

“Armando really stepped it up. He played well. He should get a double-double every game, he’s that good,” graduate forward Brady Manek said. “He’s a big guy to guard. He’s hard to guard. That’s why they were trying to double him as much as they could tonight. He played really well.”

Manek himself produced his first double-double in a North Carolina uniform with 11 points and 11 rebounds. The game, though, wasn’t just about Manek or Bacot. It was a complete team effort.

“(Coach Davis) wanted us to play tough. He wanted us to play hard, and I think that’s what we did,” Manek said. “We came out the second half with a lot of energy, sharing the ball, playing really well. Guys had some unbelievable nights. Look at Armando, look at RJ, Kerwin (Walton) came in and hit some big shots. Everybody is just really playing really well right now. We bounced back.”

UNC has demonstrated that it can be a good team this season, beating a top-25 Michigan team by 21 points and narrowly falling in a back-and-forth game against Purdue — currently ranked No. 3 in the nation. In addition, the Tar Heels have shown their defense prowess with a five-game streak of holding teams at or below 63 points earlier their season, the first time a UNC team has done this in more than 10 years.

But at the same time, UNC has also shown some weaknesses, such as getting embarrassed in their games against Tennessee and Kentucky.

As the Tar Heels enters conference play, it will be imperative that they bring the same energy, effort and toughness that was on display Tuesday night if they hope to make a run to the top of the ACC standings.  

“Before the game I told them, everyone says that in order to make something a habit, you have to do it at least 30 days, so I challenged them,” Hubert Davis said. “You bring energy, effort and toughness for 30 days and see what happens. One, that’ll become a habit and number two, you will look back and say this is of great benefit to bring those three things every time I step on the floor.”  

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