Hurricanes come close but fall short of upsetting No. 3 Heels
CORAL GABLES — Nijel Pack and Norchad Omier gave the Hurricanes a shot against No. 3 North Carolina and helped Miami stage a late comeback, but UM was unable to complete the upset.
The pair of veterans combined for 40 points, including 34 in the first half, but it wasn’t enough as UM (15-9, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) came up just short against UNC (19-5, 11-2) 75-72 at the Watsco Center on Saturday.
“I thought that was a heckuva college basketball game,” UM coach Jim Larrañaga said. “Obviously disappointed we lost. But some of the credit goes to Carolina and a lot of the credit for grinding it out.
After going cold for much of the second half, Miami got warmed up at the end of the game. Despite cutting their deficit to as little as two points the Hurricanes could not come all the way back.
Although Larrañaga stressed on Friday the importance of getting out to an early lead, North Carolina started the first half with a 15-4 lead.
Despite the slow start the Hurricanes battled back and took a one-point lead to the locker room at halftime thanks to determined play by Pack and Omier. Pack made six of his first seven shots, including 4 of 5 3-pointers.
Omier knocked down an alley-oop that helped give UM momentum and scored 16 firsthalf points. Pack had 18 points in the first half.
But Miami got off to a slow start in the second half, and Omier picked up three fouls in the first eight minutes of the half and had to spend more time on the bench.
The Hurricanes forced 16 turnovers but could not capitalize on the Tar Heels’ errors, scoring just 22 points off the turnovers.
Miami had a hard time defending North Carolina’s strong lineup.
Guard R.J. Davis, the ACC’s leading scorer, scored 25 points. Fifth-year center Armando Bacot notched a double-double, racking up 10 points with 15 rebounds.
Although Omier and Pack scored 20 points each and Wooga Poplar scored 12, no other Hurricane reached double digits. As a team, UM shot 42% from the field but only 26% from 3-point range.
Pack was limited by a minor knee injury in the second half, but he said he does not expect it to keep him out of the Hurricanes’ game against Clemson on Wednesday.
The Tigers are coming off their own upset victory against North Carolina earlier in the week.