UNC basketball losing streak reaches four after loss to Virginia Tech in ACC opener
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis tried a little bit of everything and everyone at Virginia Tech in the teams’ ACC opener.
No matter the lineup combination, to make up for the absence of Armando Bacot; nor the set plays, to try to ignite a stagnant offense; the Tar Heels didn’t have enough to avoid their fourth straight loss.
Carolina fell to the Hokies 80-72 on Sunday at Cassell Stadium.
“We had enough in the bag to be able to win this basketball game and we just didn’t do it,” Davis said.
The Heels played without Bacot, who injured his shoulder in Wednesday’s loss at Indiana. The senior forward, who is second on the team in scoring at 16.1 points per game, dressed and participated in warmups but never checked into the game.
“I hadn’t practiced all week since the (Indiana) game and just been in pain,” Bacot said. “I was just going to see what I could do, even if I could just be able to shoot layups, but my shoulder was too stiff. I couldn’t really do anything.”
Reserve sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn also did not play after breaking a bone in his left hand in practice fighting through a ball screen. Dunn was just starting to establish himself as a regular in the rotation. Dunn said he was hopeful he could be back in three weeks.
“It’s horrible, I was just getting comfortable out there,” Dunn said.
Carolina had struggled offensively even with Bacot in the lineup. The Heels failed to score at least 70 points three times entering Sunday’s game.
But without him, they appeared to lack purpose at times while running their halfcourt offensive sets. They only had two assists in the first half — and both of those came within the opening two minutes of the game. Carolina totaled just six assists for the game.
“We’re driving, penetrating and kicking out with open guys there, we’re just missing the easy shots we normally made,” R.J. Davis said. “That’s kind of our downfall right now, obviously. I feel like our offensive movement was a little bit better today, it wasn’t as stagnant as the previous games. I’m positive our assist numbers will go up.”
Davis went deep into his bench, using forwards Will Shaver for just the second time this season; Justin McKoy, who had played a total of eight minutes entering the game; and Dontrez Styles, who hadn’t played in four of the last five games before Sunday.
None of them could compensate for Bacot’s scoring, and the Heels as a team couldn’t make up for his 11 rebounds per game either. The Hokies dominated the boards 39-25 including outscoring the Heels 8-4 in second-chance points.
“It was tough especially because me healthy, I felt like I could have helped specifically in the paint with their big man,” Bacot said.
Carolina appeared to be headed to a blowout loss, trailing 57-39 with 12:38 left, before Davis’ change in defense sparked a rally.
The Heels began picking up full court and trapping in the halfcourt. Even when they didn’t force a turnover out of it, they managed to speed up the Hokies. With a quicker pace to the game, and some urgency to UNC’s play, the Heels reeled off an 8-0 spurt to get back in the game.
“That gets us going a little bit, once you can see the ball go in off of steals, everyone’s dialed in and energetic,” said R.J. Davis, who finished with 18 points. “Our pressure, down the stretch, coming back from a large deficit, was huge.”
Freshmen Seth Trimble and Tyler Nickel, who notched their respective season-high in minutes played at 23 and 25, helped inject some energy into the lineup during that stretch of full court pressure.
“To be honest, really, that was maybe our longest stretch of the year where we’ve been able to just put that effort, intensity and just physicality together as a team,” Trimble said.
Carolina’s momentum continued when Davis scored on an uncontested layup. And Pete Nance made a 3-pointer with 3:09 left — which was just their third 3 of the game — to pull within 67-62.
Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts turned the ball over on an inbounds pass under the basket, Caleb Love converted and was fouled with a chance to make it a two-point game. Love, who is shooting 77 percent from the free-throw line this season, missed the shot and the Heels could get no closer.
Mutts scored a layup and Sean Pedulla drilled a 3-pointer with 1:02 left to boost the Hokies cushion back to 74-66.
“I thought they played well, but I thought they played -- we definitely could have beat them,” said Nance, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds. “It’s just a lot of mistakes on our end that we talked about all the time.”
Hubert Davis said he was encouraged by the fight the Heels had in the game’s final 15 minutes, which is part of the reason why he’s still encouraged.
“I’m not panicked, I’m not any of that,” Davis said. “I’m convinced one, this is a good basketball team. And I’m convinced that we’re going to be a great basketball team by the end of the season.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2022 at 5:13 PM.