UNC basketball posts 63-59 win at Notre Dame, continues to cling to NCAA tournament hopes

North Carolina knew winning at Notre Dame really wouldn’t do much in its push to dress up a bubble worthy NCAA Tournament resume. And for the opening half, the Tar Heels played like it meant nothing.

Carolina shot a season-low 18 percent from the floor (5-for-27) in the first half, including 0-for-11 from 3-point range. It also scored a season-low 19 points in the first half against a Notre Dame squad that ranked 14th in the ACC in defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy.

The slow start nearly cost them, but after a “heated discussion” at halftime, the Heels emerged with a 63-59 win over the Fighting Irish in the Joyce Center.

“The fact of the matter is, our season is on the line,” said UNC forward Armando Bacot, who scored 16 points with 11 rebounds. “We lose that, then it’s like no chance unless we make a run at the ACC tournament. We knew what was at stake.”

The stakes only get a bit bigger with Saturday’s home game against Virginia. The Cavaliers represent a chance for Carolina (17-11, 9-8 ACC) to get an elusive Quad 1 win in the NCAA Net rankings. UNC is currently 0-9 in the metric that the tournament committee uses in both selecting and seeding teams.

At halftime, director of basketball operations Eric Hoots stayed at midcourt with officials reviewing if D’Marco Dunn’s basket would count. It initially was ruled good, but was overturned on review. That left the Heels with 19 points.

Guard R.J. Davis said players raised their concerns about how they were playing in the locker room, but Hoots “came in fiery and that kind of lifted our spirits.” The discussion was not about execution, it was about desire.

“We’re at a time where it’s like why did we wait to halftime with speeches to get ourselves going?” RJ Davis said. “Our backs’ against the wall right now. that was the main message and the second half that really stuck in the back of our brain.”

Davis helped ignite the Heels with two steals on consecutive possessions. He picked Marcus Hammond’s dribble from behind for a steal that he took for a layup.

Carolina picked up full court and Davis again harassed Hammond enough to deflect a pass and bat it towards midcourt, where Pete Nance scooped up the loose ball. A pass ahead to Caleb Love resulted in Carolina’s first 3-pointer in 12 tries.

“It gave us a spark, it gave us that energy and he started that for us,” Love said. “We definitely needed that coming out of the first half that we had. I feel like that started what we had to get the win.”

The Heels found their energy - and urgency - during that brief spurt and it contributed to a 15-4 run to erase their nine-point halftime deficit and take a 34-31 lead.

“That’s all we talked about at halftime, it was a heated discussion,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “…it was a great example to them what can happen when you play with sustained effort and energy and a passion out there.”

The teams battled back and forth through nine lead changes in the second half.

Carolina was able to finally take the lead for good Love made a reverse layup at 3:22 to give it a 53-52 lead. If was the fourth shot attempt of the possession kept alive by offensive rebounds by Leaky Black, Nance and Love.

And that possession showed the Heels still had some fight left for their season. Although they shot a season-low 33.3 percent for the game — including the third lowest 3-point percentage at 8.7 in program history — the Heels were saved by their rebounding.

They had 23 offensive boards, which was exactly half of all of their missed shots, and turned them into 23 second chance points. None were more important than the free throws Love made with six seconds left after UNC twice got the ball back after Black missed shots with six seconds left.

“We had 18 offensive rebounds against NC State, so we’re getting better at that,” Hubert Davis said.

Love, who scored 14 of his team-high 16 points in the second half, stole the ball from Ryan Cormac the next time down the floor and, although he missed a layup over Nate Laszewski, Bacot was there for the putback.

It was one of the few clean looks Bacot had all game. The Irish threw a steady diet of double teams and shadow defenders at him and limited him to just four points in the first half.

Carolina made Bacot a focal point in the second half and he scored 12 of his 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting.

Finishing out games has been a problem in most of their losses, but the Heels made winning plays in the last four minutes of the game. Unlike Sunday’s loss to N.C. State, which was tied at 60 with six minutes left, they did not commit a turnover down the stretch. In fact they only had one the entire second half after committing eight in the first half.

“We’ve been up with like five minutes left in eight or nine of our games,” Bacot said. “To finally, close one out is a great feeling and we’re just glad we won but we got to refocus for Saturday.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 11:08 PM.

C.L. Brown

The News & Observer

C.L. Brown covers the University of North Carolina for The News & Observer. Brown brings more than two decades of reporting experience including stints as the beat writer on Indiana University and the University of Louisville. After a long stay at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he earned an APSE award, he’s had stops at ESPN.com, The Athletic and even tried his hand at running his own website, clbrownhoops.com.