Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. NC State

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 100-80 home win over NC State on Saturday afternoon.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Jan 30, 2022 12:31 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 100-80 home win over NC State on Saturday afternoon.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

There’s so much to say after a game of this nature that it’s hard to know where to start: Carolina dropped 100 on State, Armando Bacot joined the 1,000-point club, Coach Williams was honored at halftime, Michael Jordan sat courtside, and he was honored in the second half along with his 1982 teammates. Put all of those in a hat, pull one out, and start there.
In all seriousness, what a special day. The Smith Center was rocking. The Wednesday version of the Tar Heels looked every bit like they had played three games in five days, but it was a completely different story on Saturday. You would have never guessed this squad played four games in eight days.
Carolina’s 56 first half points narrowly missed out on setting a new mark for most points in any half this season, coming up just short of the 58 second-half points against Charleston. Kerwin Walton had a three-point attempt with 20 seconds left before halftime that would have done the trick, but it just missed. 56 was, however, the highest first half tally for UNC this season.
In an almost unbelievable comparison, those 56 first half points fell just two shy of Carolina’s total for the entire game against Boston College on Wednesday (58).
Staying with that theme of the stark differences between the past two games, Carolina went from making the fewest field goals of the season against Boston College (16) to making the most field goals of the season against NC State (34). What matters most? Both games resulted in an ACC victory.
Coach Williams famously has a strong distaste for the team in red. He finished his time at Carolina with a 33-5 record against NC State (plus 5-0 at Kansas makes him 38-5 in his career). Coach Davis carried on in that tradition today and got his own first (dominating) win in his first attempt.
Armando Bacot just keeps trucking along. He still didn’t shoot quite as well as he would have liked, but did make five of 10 shots, grab 13 rebounds, and block six shots (falling just four blocks shy of a triple-double). Bacot also secured his 16^th double-double of the season and 34^th of his career.

Bacot hit a major milestone by joining the 1,000-point club, becoming the 79^th Tar Heel to do so. Carolina has the most 1,000-point scorers of any program in the country. Bacot scored his 1,000^th point on a dunk to close out UNC’s scoring in the first half. His 18 points gives him 1,009 total, which is 78^th all-time in the Carolina record book.

Caleb Love and RJ Davis had a great game. At halftime, the backcourt duo had combined to score 20 points, dish out seven assists, and commit just a solitary turnover. The final total was 38 combined points, nine assists, and just two turnovers. Love led the Tar Heels in scoring with 21 and Davis continues to grow as an aggressive and probing guard.

In fact, the team as a whole had 17 assists and four of the starters each had at least three.
The game got a little sloppy down the stretch and Carolina ended up with 12 turnovers, but at halftime they had committed just three.
Let’s stop and give some attention to today’s prolific three-point shooting. For a majority of the season, Carolina has been at or near the top of the league in three-point percentage. The recent dry spell dropped the Heels to fifth behind Virginia Tech, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Duke, but this performance made up for those shortcomings in a major way. The Heels made their first four threes on the way to shooting 10-15 in the first half and 15-27 in total.

With 14:30 to go in the second half, Carolina had made as many three-pointers as NC State had made total field goals (14).
The 15 made threes surpassed the previous season high of 12 set in the loss to Purdue.
Six of the seven players who saw the court in the first half made a three, including Puff Johnson’s first of the season. That total also includes Leaky Black, who has made at least one three in three straight games. I asked him about this postgame and he said it’s “a confidence thing” and that “at the end of the day when you see one go in, you keep shooting.”
While the offense will deservedly receive most of the attention, let’s not miss the job the Tar Heels did on the ACC’s third-leading scorer Dereon Seabron. A couple weeks after holding Georgia Tech’s Michael Devoe (also in the top three) to two points, Carolina did the exact same to Seabron. Yes, other student-athletes picked up the slack today for State, but the key is that Seabron didn’t do the damage. How did Carolina defend him? We’ll have to wait and find out. Leaky Black was cagey in the postgame press conference saying “I’ll get back to that question, we play them again. I’ll get back to that question after that.”
With Dawson Garcia having now missed three straight games, the necessity for someone off the bench to step in and step up becomes critical. In total, UNC outscored State 22-9 in bench points, eight of which came from Puff Johnson, who had the most for a bench player on either team. Johnson also grabbed six rebounds, giving him a career high in both points and rebounds. It’s obvious by the way that Coach Davis talks about Johnson that the head coach values what the sophomore brings to the table. Listen to Coach’s remarks about Johnson at the end of his postgame press conference from today to get a better idea.
Curiously Justin McKoy only played 3:24 after consistently receiving playing time in the upper teens. When he did come in, it was with just 4:27 to go in the game. Has Puff Johnson taken McKoy's minutes or was this just a blip?
Let’s give the final word to the final UNC point of the day and the first point of Jackson Watkins’ career. The walk-ons all came in with 63 seconds to go and Carolina needing three points to hit the century mark for the first time this season. Duwe Farris got an offensive rebound and putback to take care of points 98 and 99. After a State turnover, Watkins was fouled and went to the line for two shots, needing just one to hit 100. Keep in mind everything that had already gone on that day and the fact that Michael Jordan was sitting courtside and clearly there’s absolutely no pressure at all for Watkins. He misses the first free throw, but calmly hits the second for his first career point and his team’s 100^th of the day. It was a fitting end to the game, being reminded that Carolina basketball is about family, including everyone from Tar Heel royalty like Roy Williams and Jordan, to a walk-on like Watkins scoring his first career point.

Box Score

Hubert Davis postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Armando Bacot

Brady Manek

Leaky Black

Caleb Love

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is a road game against Louisville on Tuesday, February 1. Tip is at 8:00pm ET on ACC Network.

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