UNC basketball beats Boston College behind record-tying Armando Bacot double-double
As much as North Carolina coach Hubert Davis wants to develop depth, the starting five showed Tuesday night why he’s leaned so heavily upon them. The starters accounted for all but seven points in the Tar Heels’ 72-64 win over Boston College in the Dean E. Smith Center.
North Carolina (13-6, 5-3 ACC) led the entire game, but did have a lapse in the second half that allowed Boston College (8-11, 2-6) to chip an 11-point deficit down to 56-55 with six minutes left.
“They’re a physical team so they just really made the game ugly,” UNC forward Armando Bacot said. “And I think we kind of just got bored at a certain time and that’s when I think they made a good run — and we did a good job of flipping the switch.”
UNC guard Caleb Love, who is still mired in a shooting slump and was 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half, buried a 3 and followed a mishandled lob attempt to Bacot with a layup. The junior guard drew a charge on Jayden Zackery and the Heels used a 7-0 spurt to re-establish control of the game.
Davis called the charge Love took the play of the game.
“I thought what gave us life was his defensive charge,” Davis said. “One of the things that I’ve said a number of times is Caleb is a basketball player and all of our guys are and you can make an impact in many different areas. It’s not just scoring and shooting. It’s distributing. It’s playing defense. It’s rebounding. It’s team chemistry, energy and effort, enthusiasm. There’s a number of ways that you can benefit a team and allow us to be the best that we can be.”
Carolina’s best this season does not come without Bacot. He said he still feels pain in his left ankle from the injury suffered at Virginia last week. But he added if he’s playing then he’s “100 percent.” And his play backed up his words.
Bacot recorded his 60th career double-double, which moved him into a tie with Billy Cunningham for the most in program history. The senior forward finished with a game-high 20 points and 16 rebounds.
“There’s been so many great players that have played in this program and just to leave my imprint on the program and be in the history books, hopefully forever, is great,” Bacot said.
Bacot now needs just 17 rebounds against N.C. State to pass Tyler Hansbrough for the most career rebounds in Carolina’s history. He said he was trying to get 20 against BC to make it easier in Saturday’s game against N.C. State to break the record. Bacot has the game circled not just because it’s the Wolfpack, but he’d like to pass Hansbrough at home before playing at Syracuse on Jan. 24.
Davis said it was hard to describe just how valuable Bacot is to UNC and that the best feeling coaches have is when they know exactly what they’re going to get from a player.
“With Armando, there’s no guesswork, you know exactly what you’re going to get every practice, every game,” Davis said. “And what he’s doing statistically it’s just unbelievable.”
How UNC guard R.J. Davis has been shooting of late is pretty remarkable, too. He started the season slowly, shooting just 26 percent from 3-point range, due to a dislocated finger on his shooting hand. Once that healed up, he’s been one of the best shooters in the ACC.
Davis scored 18 points against BC including going 4-for-7 from 3. That brings his total over the past 10 games to 25 of 52 from behind the arc, or 48 percent.
“I feel like our potential is really high from 3, we have a lot of great shooters that can knock it down,” R.J. Davis said. “I feel like with more games and the longer we play, the 3-point percentage will increase even more because that’s the type of shooters we have on this team.”
BC, however, does not have those type of shooters. The Eagles entered the game ranked last in the ACC and among the worst in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage and in the amount of 3s they take. Carolina held them without a 3 in just six attempts, which was the first time in 1,149 consecutive games that its opponent did not make a 3-pointer. The last time that happened was against Jacksonville on Nov. 27, 1990.
UNC forward Pete Nance returned to the lineup after missing three games with a back injury. Nance’s last appearance was in the opening two minutes in their win over Wake Forest. Nance made the game’s first basket on a 3-pointer that came from an Armando Bacot pass out of a double team.
His second 3 was a signal of things to come for Carolina from behind the arc. The Heels made 10 3s, which marked just the third time this season they reached double figures: They also made 11 against Portland, and a season-high 15 against The Citadel.
What Hubert Davis didn’t like was that they took 29 attempts from behind the arc. The Eagles climbed back into the game when the Heels seemed to settle on the perimeter. It also didn’t help that Bacot had left the game with UNC leading 56-47. But after Nance missed a short jumper, Carolina’s next four shot attempts were all missed 3-pointers.
“Because you settle for threes, you don’t attack the basket and you don’t get fouled, you don’t get to the free throw line, which is a strength for us,” Davis said. “And when you settle for threes, that’s when you don’t draw defenses in and then that cuts down your assists. We only have eight assists tonight and so it trickles down when we settle for the 3.”
Carolina attempted just 17 free throws, which was its second fewest attempts this season behind 12 at Virginia.
“We got to get back to attacking the basket,” Davis said. “And we got to get back to making the extra pass.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 9:00 PM.