The UNC Tar Heels defeated the Florida State Seminoles 92-67, to move on to the semifinals of the ACC men’s basketball tournament. They’ll face Pitt Friday night at 7:00pm.
The UNC and Pitt met one time during the regular season, with the Tar Heels defeating the Panthers 70-57.
The Tar Heels were led by RJ Davis, who finished with a game-high 18 points and four players scored in double digits, but it was their rebounding that aided in the double-digit win. UNC grabbed 48 total rebounds to FSU’s 22, including 17-7 on the offensive boards.
“At the beginning we talked about what will allow us to have success against a really good Florida State team, and we needed to get after it defensively,” Head Coach Hubert Davis said after the win. “We needed to rebound the basketball and we also talked about doing a better job of making the easy play and limiting turnovers, because the last time we played them we had 17 turnovers. I feel like that we definitely checked two of the boxes.”
The game was close through the first 14 minutes, with UNC clinging to a three point lead with 6:02 remaining, but the Tar Heels closed the period on a 20-8 run and never looked back.
“Our pace. That’s where I felt like our pace got to where it needed to be with our guards and their ability to push the ball,” Davis said when asked about the Tar Heels’ first half run. “Bigs like Armando running down the middle of the floor. Our pitch-aheads were good, but it starts with defense and rebounding.”
This didn’t look like a Tar Heel team that won the ACC Regular Season Championship and is a likely top-two seed in the NCAA Tournament. There’s an edge to this group. Whether is diving for every loose ball or crashing the boards, it’s clear this squad is playing for more.
“The whole team has a chip on our shoulder,” freshman guard Eliiot Cadeau said. “Aside from a couple of the returning players, nobody on the team has really won anything. Armando and RJ got to the Final Four, but other than that there’s a lot of us who haven’t even been to the tournament. We’re just really hungry to win.”
Game Notes:
- Carolina has won 10 straight ACC Tournament games when it scores 90 or more points.
- The Tar Heels shot 52.3% from the floor. UNC is 7-0 this season (22-0 under Hubert Davis) and has won 30 in a row when shooting 50% from the floor.
- The rebound margin (+26) was UNC’s second-largest ever in an ACC Tournament game (+27 vs. Clemson in 1969).
- Carolina has outrebounded its opponents in 21 straight games (+211), which includes 18 wins.
- Carolina had 17 offensive rebounds, third most this season and most since it had 22 in the loss at Georgia Tech.
- Carolina scored 23 points off 12 FSU turnovers. The 23 points equaled the most in an ACC game by the Tar Heels this season (also in the 36-point home win over Syracuse).
- Carolina scored a season-high 26 fastbreak points (previous was 23 vs. Oklahoma).
- The Tar Heels went on a 12-0 run in the first half. This was the 19th game this season UNC had at least one 10-0 run.
- Carolina led by double digits for the 19th time in 21 ACC games (regular season and Tournament).
- Carolina’s bench scored 29 points, most since the Jan. 17 win over Syracuse.
