The North Carolina men's basketball team lost to the Iowa State Cyclones, 70-65, in the semifinals of the Phil Knight Invitational tournament on Friday.
What happened?
Caleb Grill made Caleb Love bite on a shot fake from outside the arc, then the Iowa State senior guard drained the open three for the first points of the game. Love responded with a baseline jumper down the court, but Grill blocked a Love three-point attempt just a few possessions later.
Coming out of the first media timeout, Love turned the ball over and Jaren Holmes made the transition lay-in to make the score 11-9 in favor of UNC. The Cyclones nearly tied the game soon after, but fifth-year wing Leaky Black blocked a cutting Hason Ward, and Love drew a foul and made both free throws to bring UNC's lead to four points.
Grill hit a three in response, but Bacot made a basket, Love hit a three and junior forward Puff Johnson stole the ball off the inbounds and made a contested floated to go up, 20-12. Grill hit another three, but Johnson made another impressive play to find an open Bacot down low for an easy dunk.
Grill hit yet another three off the dribble, his fourth, to cut his team's lead to six. Soon after, Holmes made back-to-back buckets and Grill made a transition lay-in after Love turned the ball over again. After a missed three-point attempt from Love, Holmes hit a three to tie the game, 30-30, with three minutes remaining in the first period.
Love found Bacot inside for a dunk to break the tie, the Cyclones answered with two free throws, and then the UNC big man hit a jump hook from the baseline to make the score 34-32 going into the half.
Love and Grill went right back to their guard battle out of the break, trading buckets through the first few minutes of the second half. A few minutes in, Iowa State forward Robert Jones hit two straight baskets to give the Cyclones the lead, 40-39.
Black was given the assignment to guard Grill in the second half, but it didn't seem to matter as Grill hit his fifth three-pointer of the game off a screen to put the Cyclones up by four. Nance responded with a turnaround post move for his first points of the game, and then first-year guard Seth Trimble tied the game back up from the charity stripe, 43-43.
