No. 19 UNC basketball handles Radford in opener. Three takeaways from Tar Heels’ win
North Carolina’s basketball season opened just as it did a year ago, with a win. And with a caveat.
UNC was not ranked preseason No. 1. The Tar Heels do not carry that weight, that burden. Their aim is to play well, have some fun along the way, win as many games as they can and see where it gets them — maybe, hopefully, to Phoenix and the 2024 Final Four, but certainly back in the NCAA tournament.
The opener wasn’t a no-sweat kind of game or blowout. Hardly. The Radford Highlanders made the No. 19 Tar Heels work for an 86-70 victory at the Smith Center.
Armando Bacot, the ageless one for UNC, put together another double-double — 25 points, 13 rebounds — to make it a winning start. For Bacot, it was the center’s 69th career double-double as the Heels won their 19th consecutive season opener.
A moment of silence was held before the game in memory of Walter Davis. The former UNC and NBA star, the uncle of Heels coach Hubert Davis, died late last week in Charlotte at age 69.
The Heels had a good shooting start, but so did the Higlanders. Radford, matching UNC’s quickness, was moving and protecting the ball, using up clock, getting good shots and held a 41-38 lead late in the opening half.
Just when everyone seemed to be getting a little restless, UNC scored the last eight points of the half. Just like that, Carolina had a 46-41 lead. It stayed tight through the first 10 minutes of the second half before the Heels began to pull away.
“No one said it was going to be easy,” UNC senior R.J. Davis said. “It’s a whole new team and I’m proud of the way we responded to adversity and finished out the game strong.”
Three takeaways from the game:
Bacot still the big man
One thing won’t change for UNC this season: The Heels will look to Bacot first, and maybe second and third, on the offensive end.
Caught up in a tight game early in the second half, the Heels kept it simple, going to the big man as often as they could. Bacot missed a few inside but had to be the focal point of the Radford defense.
“That’s what he does. He’s the best big in the country,” UNC’s Cormac Ryan said. “I don’t think that’s a crazy hot take. He’s our guy and we’ll keep feeding him.”
It’s a luxury for any coach to be able to stick a reliable big man into the lineup, game after game, knowin a double-double is possible. This is Bacot’s last year — it has to be — but Davis will enjoy that luxury as long as he can, knowing a double-double from Bacot is probable.
“I knew they were undersized, and I wanted to go in early and set the tone and that would open up everything for everybody,” Bacot said. “I knew I could punish them in the post.”
Bacot put up a 3-pointer in the final minute of the game. It was short and didn’t go. That was about the only thing missing from his first-game basketball resume.
Radford a worthy opponent
Radford is going to win some games this season. The Highlanders won 21 a year ago, when they were third in the Big South Conference, and have been picked to finish second this season.
“We were expecting a fight,” UNC’s Ryan said. “I’m proud of the way we hung in there, execute and get it done.”
Radford shot 50 percent from the field, often milking the shot clock, and used its quickness to outrebound the Heels in the first half. UNC shot well, but the Higlanders matched it.
The Higlanders hurt the Heels with good spacing offensively, sound ballhandling and the ability to get into the lane off the dribble, especially Kenyon Giles, a 5-11 sophomore who had 18 points.
“In the first half we were doing a good job of guarding their actions the first 25 seconds, and then they would go one on one and we were just breaking down,” Hubert Davis said. “We were allowing them middle drives, easy layups, uncontested jump shots. I thought we did a better job on our one-on-one defense and taking pride in that the second half.”
Playing a lot of people
Short bench? Not Monday. Davis used 10 players in the opening half and 11 in the game, saying, “Everyone made plays that were impactful for us to come out with a win.”
UNC opened with Bacot, Davis, Ryan, Paxson Wojcik and Harrison Ingram, the same starting lineup used against St. Augustine’s last week in the exhibition game. Wojcik started despite take an accidental elbow to the head from Bacot in warmups and led to him wearing a head band.
“He went down. I was surprised he played,” Bacot said, smiling. “That’s a credit to his toughness.”
The game began just as UNC intended. Bacot slammed one home. Wojcik hit a 3-pointer. So did Ingram. But Davis, who was knocking down everything against St. Aug’s, had a slow start, and freshman guard Eliott Cadeau did the same when he came in.
But Davis and then Cadeau had driving baskets eight minutes into the second half as UNC edged ahead 63-55 and turned up the volume in the Smith Center.
This story was originally published November 6, 2023 at 9:04 PM.
