RALEIGH, N.C. — After allowing an explosive scoring spurt in the second half, the North Carolina men’s basketball team (16-11, 8-8 ACC) fell to No. 23 N.C. State (21-7, 11-6 ACC), 77-69, in Raleigh on Sunday afternoon.
What happened?
Both teams came out clicking and the Tar Heels drilled five of their first six shots to take an early 11-10 lead. UNC senior center Armando Bacot and N.C. State’s D.J. Burns Jr. were the focal points of the offenses, as each side looked to post up their star big men as much as possible.
Following a brief cold stretch, N.C. State drilled two straight 3-pointers to regain its rhythm. Meanwhile, UNC’s offense went silent with only one field goal over a five-minute period as the team trailed 22-19 with 7:15 to play in the half.
Despite the hot starts, each side cooled off considerably for the remainder of the half. The Wolfpack looked to shoot early in the shot clock but converted on only 30 percent of their looks in the first 20 minutes. However, the Tar Heels turned the ball over eight times, which led to 12 N.C. State points and the team trailed 32-31 heading into the break.
The two teams prioritized getting the ball early in the second half, as a back-and-forth series of made shots in the paint had the game tied at 42 with 13:35 to play.
The Tar Heels regained the lead with two straight 3-pointers by graduate transfer Pete Nance and junior guard Caleb Love heading into the next media timeout. Another triple by junior guard RJ Davis gave UNC a 54-48 advantage — its largest lead of the night — with just over nine minutes to go, but a 7-0 Wolfpack run helped the team go ahead at the under-eight timeout.
The game was tied at 60 with the 6:02 remaining, but the Wolfpack went on another 7-0 to pull away. Burns and guard Jarkel Joiner led the charge during the stretch, as a Joiner triple in transition sent the PNC Arena crowd into a frenzy and forced UNC head coach Hubert Davis to call a timeout at the 4:44 mark.
N.C. State continued its run out of the timeout with another jumper from Joiner. UNC trimmed the deficit to six, but a hook shot from Burns and an alley-oop pass from Wolfpack guard Terquavion Smith to Joiner put the exclamation point in the Tar Heels' 77-69 defeat.
