UNC snaps two-game losing streak with win over Virginia Tech. Heels now 10-0 at home
North Carolina players braced for a tough and uncomfortable practice on Sunday after losing back-to-back games by more than 20 points last week. They expected to see an angry side of UNC coach Hubert Davis. Instead he was encouraging.
Davis said he quoted a Bible verse from the Book of James chapter 1, verse 2, which “talks about finding joy and persevering through the hard times.”
The lighter touch from Davis helped the Tar Heels navigate their worst shooting performance at home this season to emerge with a 78-68 win over Virginia Tech Monday at the Dean E. Smith Center.
“This is the first time where guys we’re talking about toughness, toughness, perseverance, and let’s stick together,” Davis said. “The energy was really good in the huddle, even when it looked like things were turning. We all stayed together.”
The Heels (13-6, 5-3) played without sophomore forward Dawson Garcia, who missed the game while tending to a family illness in his native Minnesota. The Heels played two other games without Garcia in the rotation when he missed the Notre Dame and Virginia games with a concussion.
UNC senior forward Leaky Black, whose 10 points marked the first time this season he’s scored double figures, said the players saw all the negative takes on social media about the team after losses to Miami and Wake Forest. But they were relieved mentally by Davis’ encouragement.
“The last few games it feels like soon as the tipoff starts, we’re down by 20 just like that,” Black said. “The whole game feels like we don’t have any fight. This game really showed we really can dig in and gut some wins out.”
Armando Bacot recorded his 10th straight double-double by halftime. He is the first Carolina player to achieve the feat since Billy Cunningham in 1965. Doug Moe is the only other player in program history to record such a streak.
Bacot scored 12 of UNC’s first 14 points and was perfect on his first six shot attempts. His first miss didn’t come until 12:11 left in the half. But he proceeded to miss his next five shots and didn’t score again until the second half. Bacot finished with 14 points and 20 rebounds before fouling out with 2:29 remaining.
“It was a long stretch when neither one of us could get a bucket,” Bacot said. “For us to just be resilient and just stay aggressive and (we) just dug this one out. Virginia Tech, their record doesn’t show it, but they’re a great team and this is a good win.”
Here’s what we learned from the Heels’ win:
Feasting at home
Carolina hasn’t played a two-possession game at home all season. Its closest game was a 94-87 win over Brown in the second game of the season. Things looked headed that way against the Hokies when UNC had an eight minute stretch between made baskets and began the second half making just 6 of 25 shots from the floor.
Brady Manek’s 3-pointer that made the score 57-52 and ended a five-minute scoring drought was the spark the Heels needed to pull away. Manek led the way to close the game with a dunk off a Caleb Love miss and his fourth 3-pointer with 3:45 left to match their biggest lead of the game at 65-54. Manek finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.
The Heels’ average margin of victory in their first nine home wins was 17 points entering Monday night’s game.
Shooting woes
The final score and margin of victory belies the fact that this was a gritty win for UNC. It wasn’t a perfect game like they have tended to play at home. It was ugly offensively at times.
Carolina’s win marked the third straight game it has shot under 40 percent from the field. The Heels shot just 36.5 percent from the field against the Hokies, which marked a season-low for a home game. The previous low was 39 percent in their win over Elon.
Virginia Tech (10-9, 2-6) actually had a higher shooting percentage (46.6 percent) than UNC.
“Not every game is gonna be perfect, not every game is gonna be pretty,” Manek said. “But the way the guys played tonight, especially coming back 48 hours after getting beat by 25, it’s really nice to see how we can really turn stuff around.”
Boost-less bench
Carolina has generally got an offensive burst from the bench all season. But playing without Garcia and his 9.0-point average made it more difficult to depend on bench scoring. Davis only used three reserves all game.
Guard Kerwin Walton’s first shot attempt hit the side of the backboard and he didn’t attempt another the rest of the game. Forward Justin McKoy was 0-for-3 but did get to the free throw line on a play that landed double technical fouls on Keve Aluma and Bacot. McKoy finished with two points. Forward Puff Johnson played four minutes in the first half and didn’t take a shot.
With UNC playing the first of four games in nine days, Davis said after the Wake loss that it wasn’t feasible for starters to log 35 minutes. But R.J. Davis had 38, Love was at 35 and Leaky Black, Bacot and Manek all finished with 34 minutes each.
“One of the reasons that I kept, in large part, the starting lineup together is they were just really good defensively,” Hubert Davis said. “Virginia Tech has a lot of moving parts. And I felt like when we went to the bench, especially in the first half, the effort defensively just went down.”
All five starters scored in double figures for the first time this season.
This story was originally published January 24, 2022 at 10:15 PM.