Tar Heels stumble in the second half, lose on the road to Georgia Tech
North Carolina got more of the start it wanted against Georgia Tech, now it has to work on its finish. The Tar Heels were the team that jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first half, only to have the Yellow Jackets rally for a 72-67 win.
Georgia Tech (5-3, 1-1) shot 61 percent in the second half as Michael Devoe and Jose Alvardo each scored a game-high 20 points. They helped the Jackets beat UNC in back-to-back seasons for the first time since winning four straight during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
After taking a 61-53 lead, Carolina was outscored 19-6 the remaining 6:53 of the game.
“You stop runs by other people by scoring yourself or get defensive stops,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “And we were not able to keep up the pressure on them by scoring and we were not able to get stops as well.”
The Tar Heels (5-4, 0-2 ACC) held a five-point lead with 5:21 left on a Kerwin Walton 3-pointer. But they only managed one field goal the rest of the way. Carolina, like in the N.C. State game, had a chance to tie it late with a 3-pointer, but R.J. Davis — who was 1 for 7 from the floor — missed his shot with 17 seconds left.
Armando Bacot (14 points) and Leaky Black (10) were the only two players for Carolina in double figures. The 67 points tied a season-low scoring, matching the Heels’ output in a win over Stanford and a loss to Texas.
Black said it was because they lost focus on where the ball should be going. Bacot and Garrison Brooks combined to score the first nine points of the second half for Carolina. But the remaining 15 minutes of the game, Bacot’s two baskets were all they could muster.
“We did a pretty good job getting the ball inside the first half and making them work, changing the side of the ball, attacking the gaps,” Black said. “The first half play, we did pretty good. And second half, I felt like, I don’t know, it was a kind of selfishness going around and it just went from there.”
And One
UNC coach Roy Williams shook up the starting lineup. Davis and Bacot were the only two who remained from the previous games. Senior guard Andrew Platek, freshman guard Kerwin Walton and freshman forward Day’Ron Sharpe each made their first starts of the season.
In one respect, it provided the same mistake-prone results. The Heels turned the ball over on their first three possessions en route to committing 10 in the first half. But Carolina did something it had not achieved since the season-opening win over College of Charleston: It never trailed in the first half. The Heels had trailed by 10 or more points in the first half six times in their first eight games,
Lane violation
Georgia Tech trailed the entire first half but took its first lead of the game midway through the second half thanks to Carolina turnovers. The Jackets converted the Heels’ first six turnovers after halftime into 10 points and took a 52-49 lead. Overall, they scored 19 points on 18 UNC turnovers.
ICYMI
Walton again came alive in the second half for Carolina. With the score tied at 53, Walton made three 3-pointers to help the Heels grab a 64-59 lead. The freshman scored 10 points, including two 3-pointers in the second half of the Heels’ win over Kentucky. Walton now has the team’s highest 3-point shooting percentage (50.0) having made 8 of 16 on the season.
Making sense of the numbers
Caleb Love entered the game having shot just 4 of 34 from 3-point range. He had missed 13 consecutive attempts — including his first two against the Yellow Jackets — before making his first 3 since Dec. 8 against Iowa. The officials made him work for it, too. It initially was ruled as just a two but was reversed upon review. When Love hit a second 3, it marked the only time since the Stanford game he has made multiple 3-pointers in a game. Carolina as a team made a season-high eight 3’s against the Jackets.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 10:26 PM.