UNC rolls by Michigan 72-51 in ACC/BIG Ten Challenge
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. » Caleb Love and Armando Bacot believed North Carolina could play better than it showed in back-to-back losses to ranked teams. The Tar Heels proved it against No. 24 Michigan.
Love scored 22 points to help UNC take control after halftime, and the Tar Heels handled the Wolverines 7251 on Wednesday night in the ACC/BIG Ten Challenge.
North Carolina led 2927 at the half but shot 58% after the break to turn the game into a surprising rout. It was a sign of growth after November losses to now-no. 2 Purdue and against No. 13 Tennessee a day later in the Hall of Fame Tip-off in Uncasville, Connecticut. Firstyear coach Hubert Davis said his team’s energy and effort were disappointing in the 17-point loss to the Volunteers.
“We just had to do some soul-searching and we just had to figure out: Do we really want to be a great team or a good team?” Bacot said. “I feel like we took a step in the right direction. I mean, we were all were just pretty upset and (ticked) off about it. And just some of
the things that were just said about us as a team, we didn’t like it at all.”
The response? The Tar Heels (5-2) were active defensively and did a better job of establishing their paint presence to get better looks as Dawson Garcia (14 points, two 3-pointers) and Bacot (11 points, 14 rebounds) thrived.
“I felt like our guys wanted another opportunity against a big-time team,” Davis said.
Bacot played aggressively out of the break and was fouled twice in a span of 12 seconds by Michigan’s top big man, Hunter Dickinson, early in the second half. That sent Dickinson to the bench for the next 10-plus minutes with four fouls.
The Tar Heels pounced to take advantage, while the Wolverines (4-3) got nothing going in response and trailed by as many as 25 points.
“I saw that we missed one of our best players during that run,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “From there, North Carolina really took advantage. They scored inside in the paint pretty easy, with less resistance.”
Michigan shot 9 of 27 (33%) after halftime as UNC pushed the margin to double figures and then got back-to-back 3s from Love to make it 59-40 with 6:49 left.