UNC will face ‘difficult matchup’ in ACC tournament semifinal as Heels, Hokies meet again
North Carolina will battle Virginia Tech, and the sports adage that it’s tough to beat a team three times in the same season, during the ACC tournament semifinals Friday night at the Barclays Center.
Duke found out how difficult it was after beating Syracuse by double digits in their regular season meetings. The Blue Devils had to rally, despite the Orange being without leading scorer Buddy Boeheim, before emerging with an 88-79 win in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Carolina played two tightly contested games with the Hokies before pulling away late for the win. UNC coach Hubert Davis expects more of the same on Friday.
“The two games that we played them, one in Chapel Hill, another one in Blacksburg, were highly contested and very competitive,” Davis said. “It’ll be another great matchup (Friday) night.”
The Hokies are similar to the Heels offensively with multiple scorers both inside and outside. Davis called them a “difficult matchup.”
“From an offensive standpoint, they just have a lot of movement, they’ve got great spacing and balance,” Davis said. “They’re an outstanding 3-point shooting team. But they also have two guys that can score consistently down low on the block, and both of those guys are outstanding passers.”
The regular season games
Caleb Love scored 22 points with five assists in the Heels’ 78-68 win on Jan. 24 in Chapel Hill. It marked the first time this season all five Carolina starters scored in double figures. Armando Bacot seemed headed for a career-high scoring when he made his first six shots from the field. But he missed 12 of his next 13 attempts to finish with 14 points and 20 rebounds.
Carolina won for the first time when held below 40 percent shooting from the floor. The Heels shot 39.4 percent in the first half and just 33.3 percent in the second half.
The Hokies were powered by their frontcourt of Keve Aluma and Justyn Mutts, who combined to score 37 points.
The Heels had one of their best defensive showings in their 65-57 victory in Blacksburg on Feb. 19. UNC held the Hokies to a season-low for points in Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies entered the game shooting 41 percent from 3-point range, which ranked second nationally at the time, but they were held to just 5-for-26 or 19.2 percent from behind the arc.
Love again led the Heels with a 21-point, seven-assist performance.
The win was Carolina’s first that qualified as a Quad 1 victory in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.
Who are Carolina’s best bets for a big game?
Love scored 20-plus and had more than five assists in both games against the Hokies. The assist part of that equation is notable because Carolina is 13-0 this season when Love has five or more assists. There’s no reason to believe he shouldn’t continue to be successful. The 6-foot-5 sophomore enjoys a height advantage over the Hokies backcourt be it 6-foot Storm Murphy, 6-foot-1 Sean Pedulla or 6-foot-3 Hunter Cattoor.
It could also be a big assist game for Bacot. Neither Aluma or Mutts had much success defending him 1-on-1. Virginia Tech has to double team Bacot to keep him out of rhythm and that helps create open shots for other UNC players. Bacot is also the reason why UNC enjoyed a rebounding edge in both games, collecting 20 and 15 boards, respectively, in their two meetings.
What Virginia Tech players should UNC focus on?
Aluma is a 6-foot-9 forward who can maneuver in the post or float on the perimeter. He leads the Hokies in scoring, averaging 15.6 points per game. He’s scored 19 and 16 in the two games against the Tar Heels.
UNC forward Brady Manek said Aluma and Mutts work well together so the challenge will be stopping them both.
“(They’re) two really good teammates down low, and they both are big factors in (the semifinals), so we just need to lock in and play hard,” Manek said.
Cattoor leads the team in 3-point shooting having made 74 while shooting 40 percent from behind the arc. He scored 13 points and had three 3s at Carolina, but only had five points and was 1-for-6 from 3-point range in Blacksburg.
He’s not the only outside threat. Storm Murphy scored 16 points in their quarterfinal win over Notre Dame and he shoots 36 percent from 3. Pedulla doesn’t take as many shots, but he’s a 46 percent shooter from 3. And Nahiem Alleyne is second on the team with 60 made 3s and he shoots 37 percent from deep.
“For the guards, I feel like they really can shoot the ball and they capitalize on our mistakes,” Black said. “So we’ve really got to be disciplined in guarding them.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 6:20 AM.