Bacot and Davis combine for 44, lead UNC to first ACC title game appearance since 2018

WASHINGTON — With a little over four minutes left in the ACC tournament semifinal, Pittsburgh's Jaland Lowe tied up the game with a jumper. UNC’s RJ Davis responded twenty seconds later with a downtown three. 

The contest against the Pittsburgh Panthers was characterized by a tight back and forth play. UNC took the lead four times, Pitt three. The game was tied nine different times.

The No. 4 UNC men’s basketball team (27-6, 17-3 ACC) beat Pittsburgh (22-11, 12-8 ACC), 72-65, to advance to the ACC tournament championship on Saturday night.

After a relatively docile first half, RJ Davis hit his stride in the second and led the Tar Heels with 25 points.

“That’s a bad boy,” junior Harrison Ingram said. “The size [RJ Davis] is at, to shoot the ball like he does, I mean he gets open whenever he wants at will. When he shoots a shot, everyone thinks it’s going in.”

Graduate Armando Bacot was right behind with 19 points and 11 rebounds. UNC overall had another dominant performance off the glass with 44 rebounds.

Pitt won the opening tip, but seemed to give in to the high octane Tar Heel offense that previously crushed the Florida State Seminoles by a 25-point margin. However, four minutes into the contest, the Panthers came back with a renewed vigor, scoring 13 unanswered points in two minutes as the Tar Heels struggled to shut down Pitt’s Guillermo Diaz Graham beyond the arc. 

The Tar Heels started slowly crawling back with jumpers from Davis and a three from sophomore Seth Trimble — his first since the Boston College victory in late January.

Still, with six minutes left in the half, UNC found itself down, failing to contain Pitt rookie Carlton Carrington. On the back of a dunk by Bacot and the offensive rebounding persistence of junior Harrison Ingram, the Tar Heels equalized, just for Carrington to drain another pull-up jumper.

However the Tar Heel offense lagged throughout the first half, unable to make any significant runs and spent almost 14 minutes trailing the Panthers. Carrington proved to be a thorn in the foot for UNC, notching 16 first-half points; meanwhile, none of the Tar Heels were in double digits.

“That was our mission in the second half was to shut down their guard plan,” Trimble said. “I think Lowe and Carrington were kind of getting whatever they wanted in the first half. It just came to the point we had to say enough is enough.”

UNC entered the locker room down 35-33 after Ingram drained a three in the final seconds to close the gap. 

First-year guard Elliot Cadeau drove to the basket and finished with a kiss off the glass to tie up the contest out of the break. After a quiet first half, Davis got going: the ACC Player of the Year knocked down three second-half 3-pointers to push the Tar Heels ahead.

Sophomore Jalen Washington was able to provide some much needed bench points and give Bacot a rest, helping the Tar Heels stay just ahead of Pitt.

ACC Sixth Man of the Year Ishmael Leggett drained a three as Pitt began to creep up to the Tar Heels and eventually tied up the game at 62 with just over four minutes left. Davis responded with a pull-up three. 

Then, with a little over 90 seconds left, Davis again found success beyond the arc and the Tar Heels attempted to extend their lead over the Panthers as the clock wound down. Pitt, however, was down but not out. Consistent with his dominant performance all game, Carrington brought the Panthers within four at just forty seconds left in the game. 

“Coach Davis’ main message was to take the challenge on the defensive end,” RJ Davis said. “And offense was always going to be fine but it’s the defense that’s going to win these games. And when it got down to it we got stops and executed on the offensive end.”

Showing their mettle in the final minutes, the Tar Heels were able to hold on to their lead and advance to have a shot at the ACC tournament title, which they haven't won since 2016.

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