UNC basketball downs Boston College in ACC tournament, will face Virginia in quarterfinals
North Carolina survived a scare that had nothing to do with Boston College on Wednesday in the ACC tournament’s second round.
The No. 7 seed Tar Heels outmatched the 10th-seeded Eagles. They shot well, shared generously and played shut-down defense, running away to an 83-61 victory in the Greensboro Coliseum.
It sets up the third meeting with No. 2 seed Virginia in the tournament quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The Heels and Cavaliers split their regular-season meetings, with each team winning at home. A win would help boost, but certainly not guarantee, UNC’s chances of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
That’s why Armando Bacot is going to have the most-watched left ankle in the state during warmups on Thursday.
Carolina jumped out to a 19-point lead against BC when the senior forward appeared to twist his left ankle as he landed while jumping for a rebound. Bacot sat out the remaining 4:34 of the half and retreated to the tunnel with athletic trainer Doug Halverson.
“I’ve never seen anybody sustain ankle sprains and be able to come back like he can,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “He didn’t think it was as bad as the one, obviously in the Final Four, and also the one that — when he hurt it at Virginia. When Armando is out there, whether it’s 100 percent or 75 percent, that’s good news for us.”
The last time Bacot was in a tunnel trying to run on a sore ankle, he did not return to the game, and the Heels lost at Virginia 65-58 on Jan. 10. Bacot played just 88 seconds of that game.
He made his way back onto the court against the Eagles for the second half and made the first basket. Although he didn’t show much fluidity moving laterally, Bacot was able to get up and down the floor without visible pain or a limp.
“He’s tough as nails, he wanted to be out there for this team,” UNC guard Caleb Love said. “I don’t have no doubt that he’ll be ready to play (against Virginia.)”
After playing the first five and a half minutes, he sat out the remainder of the game. Bacot finished with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists. His availability and movement on Thursday once he’s no longer boosted by adrenaline is more important for the Heels.
It’s apparently somewhat routine to see Bacot bounce back from injury. Graduate forward Leaky Black saw him do it as a freshman when he suffered an ankle sprain against Ohio State only to be back the next game. And this season when he hurt it in the second overtime of their four overtime loss to Alabama. Black joked that Bacot was just being dramatic.
“Believe it or not, I’ve seen one that y’all haven’t seen in practice,” Black said. “He’s really rolled it bad, it was like a golf ball. And then, literally like the next day, he was running and like he looked fine. I was like, ‘Bro, you just want attention.’ Mondo is gonna eat all this up, I just want y’all to know that.”
Carolina (20-12) shot 10 of 24 from 3-point range. It marked the third time in the past four games that the Heels made at least 10 3s in a game.
Love and guard R.J. Davis paced the way combining to go 7-for-14 from behind the arc. Love scored a game-high 22 points, and Davis was next with 18 points.
They helped the Heels become just the fifth team this season to score 80 or more on the Eagles. It was also the most points Carolina scored since a 91-71 win over Clemson on Feb. 11.
“Honestly, they were just hitting a lot of shots today,” BC guard Jaeden Zackery said. “We had a game plan to block in on Bacot, double him and then just contest the shooters and hope they missed a few shots. But they came out and shot their best today, so that’s what made it difficult.”
The Heels’ outside shooting was boosted by the way they moved the ball. They totaled just 22 assists in their last three losses to Miami, N.C. State and Duke. But against the Eagles, UNC had 16 assists on 34 made baskets.
“When we’re sharing the basketball and it’s good to great (shots), it doesn’t surprise me that the ball goes in,” said coach Hubert Davis, who added, “The ball didn’t stick very much at all.”
Boston College, who had its own leading scorer coming back from injury, never got going offensively.
Eagles’ 7-foot center Quinten Post did not start after missing Tuesday’s win over Louisville and playing just three minutes in the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech. Post scored 13 points in 29 minutes against UNC but was never allowed to be much of a factor.
What Carolina did differently from its 72-64 win over BC on Jan. 17 was it did not let up. The Eagles chipped an 11-point deficit down to 1 with six minutes left in the game in Chapel Hill.
When Bacot went down, BC got as close as 12 points near the completion of the first half. But Carolina never allowed the Eagles to get closer than 16 after scoring the first basket in the second half.
“Every time we came in a timeout, we said the four-minute mark, let’s make a run, let’s build off this lead, and I think we did that,” R.J. Davis said. “Whereas sometimes we have a big lead going into halftime, we get too relaxed and come out flat the second half, so I feel like we did a better job of not doing that.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 9:05 PM.