The North Carolina men’s basketball team (16-9, 8-6 ACC) defeated Clemson (18-7, 10-4), 91-71, in the Dean E. Smith Center on Saturday afternoon.
What happened?
The Tar Heels went four minutes without a field goal while Clemson center PJ Hall connected on a pair of 3-pointers to build an early 8-2 Tiger lead. Fifth-year forward Leaky Black and senior forward Armando Bacot both scored inside, but Clemson guard Chase Hunter hit a mid-range jumper to maintain the Tigers’ lead.
Black hit the Tar Heels’ first 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10-9, and both teams’ benches checked in early on. First-year forward Jalen Washington immediately hit a tightly contested baseline mid-range jumper, but Clemson forward Hunter Tyson sank a long three from the top of the key to give Clemson a 15-11 lead.
With seconds waning off the shot clock, sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn hit a tough step-through off the glass out of the media timeout. After a defensive stop, Dunn recorded his second assist on a smooth bounce pass to Washington inside, who scored the two-hand dunk.
The three bench player rotation got the starters going. Junior guard Caleb Love hit back-to-back threes, giving UNC a 22-17 lead and forcing Clemson to call a timeout. Out of the break, Hall wasted no time in scoring on Bacot inside, followed by a baseline mid-range jumper over Bacot.
Love and junior guard RJ Davis both hit threes to build a solid nine-point lead, but Hunter and Clemson forward Ian Schieffelin also hit threes. Junior wing Puff Johnson hit an open corner three off a Love assist. Davis drove in and dumped it off to Bacot for an emphatic jam to close out the first half with a 42-33 UNC lead.
The Tar Heels didn’t make a substitution for the first seven minutes of the second half, with Davis and Love spearheading the offense for four threes on 14 combined points in that span. With all its starters on the floor, UNC outscored Clemson 20-10 before Washington came back off the bench.
From there, the Tar Heels closed out the game with solid two-way play, holding Clemson to 28 points in the final 13 minutes and involving their bench on the offensive end, with Johnson scoring five points.
