Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 76-67 home loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Feb 17, 2022 2:19 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 76-67 home loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

This dichotomoy perfectly sums up the strange 2021-22 college basketball season for UNC:

Saturday vs. FSU – third-largest halftime lead in Smith Center history
Tonight vs. Pitt – third-largest halftime deficit in Smith Center history

Pittsburgh has now won two straight in Chapel Hill and three out of the last four against Carolina.
What’s confounding about the outcome is that Carolina had more rebounds, steals, blocks, assists, points off turnovers, points in the paint, and bench points than Pitt. UNC had fewer turnovers. The teams made the same number of field goals in the game (24). The big differentiators were threes and frees. Pitt made 10-17 from deep to Carolina’s 7-26. Pitt made 18-20 from the free throw line to Carolina’s 12-16. Not to mention that Pitt averages just shy of six made threes a game and typically shoots 32% from distance this season.
It’s not quite time to write the obituary for Carolina’s NCAA Tournament hopes, but this was a crippling Quad 4 loss for a Tar Heel team whose Tournament resume stands out for having not taken any bad losses.
With his eight rebounds, Armando Bacot becomes the 22^nd Tar Heel to hit 800 for his career. The junior center currently has 804 and is three behind, ironically enough, Jason Capel for 21^st.
Justin McKoy missed the game with left knee sorenees. His absence meant more minutes for Dontrez Styles (first sub off the bench tonight) and Kerwin Walton.
For awhile it appeared that Caleb Love had used up all his shooting on Saturday against Florida State. At halftime, he was shooting 2-9 from the field and 0-5 from three. But the second half was a different story – Love basically took over the game down the stretch and was 5-5 from the floor including 1-1 from three as well as hitting four of his five free throw attempts after halftime. In one stretch, Love scored 13 straight of Carolina’s points and ultimately had 15 of the final 19 for the Heels. Love’s second half scoring came when he realized that his shot wasn’t falling and began attacking the basket; playing inside out just like his coach had requested last week.
Love was not the only Tar Heel to have a second half run. Kerwin Walton had perhaps his best sequence of the season and in the meantime, kickstarted the run that ultimately got Carolina within six points. With the Heels trailing by 21 (largest deficit of the game), Walton grabbed a steal, 16 seconds later he buried a difficult mid-range shot, then hit a three, then another steal, and five seconds later buried another three. It was a personal 8-0 run for Walton, forced a Pitt timeout, and most importantly cut the Panther’s lead to 13.
Brady Manek recorded his second double-double as a Tar Heel with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Leaky Black continues to be an offensive revelation, in addition to his usual sturdy defense. He made two threes and scored in double-figures for the third time in the last five games. First 18 games of the season? Zero games scoring in double-digits. Next eight games? Four games scoring double-digits.
The 23 first-half points were the Tar Heels’ second-fewest of the season in any half. The lowest was 22 in the first half at Miami.
No double-double for Armando Bacot. Were it not for foul trouble he likely would have gotten there, as he needed just three more points and two more rebounds. For the second time this season, a careless Bacot foul has ultimately wound up costing him valuable court time and potentially his team the game.
Carolina now has six straight games with assists on at least 50% of their made baskets.
In the first half, Leaky Black went 2-3 from beyond the arc. The rest of the team? 1-11. That’s a recipe for a losing effort for a team that shoots in the range between 35-40% on the season.
Interestingly, this game got off to a rather similar start as Saturday’s game vs. FSU. The Heels jumped out to a 5-0 lead and Pitt had three straight turnovers. From there is where the two game scripts diverged. Carolina was leading 12-8 and had the ball, but committed an offensive foul and Pitt went on a decisive 21-2 run.
Carolina was charged with at least four offensive fouls. At one point in the second half, Brady Manek was finally able to draw one for the Tar Heels and the Smith Center crowd responded with a mocking round of applause for the referees.
The Tar Heels were guilty of several self-inflicted wounds including Armando Bacot and Kerwin Walton both fouling a shooter with one second left on the shot clock. Bacot’s was especially painful because UNC had just reeled off a 6-0 spurt and his gaffe resulted in a four-point play for Pitt.
When mounting a fevered comeback, just about everything needs to go right to finish the job. Unfortunately, there was a turning point (and additional self-inflicted) moment that spelled Carolina’s ultimate doom. UNC cut the lead to six with 1:50 remaining, still plenty of time for a comeback. Brady Manek intercepted Pitt’s ensuing inbounds pass and sent the ball across half court to Caleb Love. Love took his eye off the pass and it went out of bounds. On the next possession, Pitt completed a three-point play and the game was effectively over. We will obviously never know what would have happened on that possession. Perhaps Carolina would have completed their comeback. But we do know one thing: that turnover would up being the final nail in the coffin.
I’m not going to point a finger at the referees for any calls, but one of the refs did allow about 10 seconds to run off the clock after a Carolina basket while the ball just sat on the baseline waiting for a Panther to pick it up in order to inbounds. Thankfully the game wasn’t close, but had it been a closer game those 10 seconds could have made all the difference.
At the end of the day, Carolina’s defensive pressure was what turned the second-half tide to give them a chance to get back in the game. My question is this: Where is that intensity earlier in the game? Where is the urgency?
The game at Virginia Tech on Saturday was already important. Now it becomes imperative. Carolina must get a quality Quad 1 victory to think about balancing out this Quad 4 loss.

Box Score

Hubert Davis postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Leaky Black

Caleb Love

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is a road game against Virginia Tech on Saturday, February 19. Tip is at 4:00pm ET on ESPN2.

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