UNC basketball holds on to beat Clemson as Caleb Love makes key plays in final seconds
North Carolina’s much-maligned guard Caleb Love shook off his struggles when it mattered most. Love made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 36 seconds remaining. He then had a drive and assist to Brady Manek for the game-winning layup with 3.1 seconds as the Tar Heels escaped Clemson with a 79-77 win at Littlejohn Coliseum on Tuesday.
When David Collins’ 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short, Carolina began its celebration and Love turned to wave goodbye to the students in the bleachers surrounding the court.
“It shows a lot about how tough Caleb is, how resilient he is, and I’m just so proud of him,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “There were times where he made mistakes, but it’s about making big plays in big moments and we don’t win this game without Caleb.”
Love entered the game shooting just 26% from the field in Carolina’s previous seven games. He went 4-for-12 against the Tigers to finish with 10 points.
“Caleb, I would say, he’s one of the few guys I played with that really never loses confidence,” UNC forward Armando Bacot said. “He may not go out and shoot his best every game, but the next game he’s still going to get up those same amount of attempts and still be aggressive with his foot on the gas. So with Caleb, I don’t really think it’s a confidence issue, he’s just finding his swag.”
Bacot, who had game-highs with 24 points and 10 rebounds, fouled out with 1:04 left and the Heels trailing 75-74. Bacot ran into Clemson guard David Collins, who may have exaggerated the contact when he fell.
It left Carolina without its most consistent scorer for the game’s final minute. Love made the two biggest plays of the game for the Heels in the final seconds. Trailing 75-74, Love got isolated on Clemson’s P.J. Hall and pulled up for a 3-pointer. He had made just one of his prior six attempts from behind the arc, but nailed it when it counted.
“Yeah, I’m in a shooting slump right now, but it can’t rain forever,” Love said.
Love also had five turnovers — his third straight game with four or more. And several came when he drove to the basket with nowhere to pass. But on Carolina’s final possession, he drove with purpose and found Manek open for the layup. Love said Manek usually floats behind the 3-point line on similar plays.
“I believe that Clemson coaches probably told them not to help off on any 3s and so that’s why the lane was so open,” Love said. “Brady set kind of a ghost screen that I came off and he didn’t switch so I had a head of steam downhill. I could have shot the layup, but I saw Brady cutting in the side of my rear view and I passed it to him, he made the layup.”
The Tar Heels (17-7, 9-4 ACC) began the game like they did in many of their losses — watching their opponent get off to a fast start. Clemson led 8-0 and 19-8 early, before Collins and P.J. Hall picked up two fouls each. As they sat for the remainder of the half, the Tigers (12-11, 4-8) went cold offensively. UNC outscored the Tigers 22-6 to end the first half with a 30-25 lead.
Here’s what we learned in the Heels’ win:
Learning from Louisville
Carolina hasn’t been in too many close games this season, but players said their 90-83 overtime win over Louisville helped down the stretch against the Tigers. The Heels didn’t score in the final 49 seconds of regulation against the Cardinals. They missed two shots and Love had a turnover that led to Louisville tying the game.
Against Clemson, they weren’t in a rush. They scored on both of their possessions in the final minute to ensure the game didn’t need an extra period. Hubert Davis said he joked with them in the huddle just before Manek’s game-winner to win it so they could get back to Chapel Hill at a reasonable hour.
“It helped that we’d been in that situation before and been successful,” Davis said.
Flagrant runs
It wasn’t just execution down the stretch that Carolina took from the Louisville win. They again kept their poise when the potential for chaos was present.
The Heels aided Clemson rallies three times thanks to fouls. Manek appeared to be called more for the hard fall that Collins took while airborne than for a flagrant foul. But the Tigers used the free throws and a 3-pointer from Alex Hemenway for a 5-0 run to pull within one negating Carolina’s nine point lead to start the second half.
When UNC held a five point lead with 11:41 remaining, Bacot picked up his fourth foul when he mushed Collins in the face while battling for position in the post. Clemson made it a 4-point possession with Collins’ free throws and a Naz Bohannon layup.
R.J. Davis didn’t get a flagrant — he was given a technical foul after making a layup that put UNC up 66-64 with 5:47 left. Davis declined to comment on what he said after making the basket to draw the ire of the official. Clemson’s Al-Amir Dawes tied it with free throws, but Bohannon missed a layup on the ensuing possession that would have given them the lead.
“When the going gets tough, you’ve just got to come together even more,” Bacot said. “Like the Louisville game, it was a lot of controversial calls towards the end with me fouling out. But I mean, I think we respond well.”
Freshmen lineup
When freshmen Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn have gotten their longest stretches of playing time this season, it’s generally come in blowout games. But both made their rare appearance in the first half at Clemson. Dunn, a 6-foot-4 guard from Tuscon, Ariz., only played a minute.
Styles, a 6-foot-6 wing from Kinston, was the first to enter replacing Leaky Black in the lineup. Styles had two rebounds in four minutes. And maybe more important for him to continue to get minutes, he didn’t have any glaring mistakes defensively.
“He made a huge play in the first half, I mean, we win this game by what, two points?” Bacot said. “It was a cross screen where I completely missed it and Dontrez followed the scouting report. He got in front of my man and gave me enough time to get back and we ended up getting a stop that play so that was huge for him.”
Could it be the start of a trend to get them more experience? They both played surrounded by veterans and did not play in the same lineup together. With the Heels down both Anthony Harris and Dawson Garcia from their rotation, they could use the added depth.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 8:22 PM.