In No. 1 seed UNC men’s basketball’s first NCAA tournament game in two years, the Tar Heels (28-7) overcame uncharacteristic mistakes in the first half to earn a 90-62 win over No. 16 seed Wagner (17-16) on Thursday.
Junior forward Harrison Ingram got the night started for UNC with a post move in the paint and finish with his left hand. Indicative of what was to come for UNC, Ingram hit Wagner with his “too small” celebration.
The Tar Heels raced out to a 6-0 lead, but two errant passes by Ingram and first-year guard Elliot Cadeau allowed Wagner to cut at the deficit. The Seahawks struggled to contain graduate forward Armando Bacot down low, though. Bacot feasted, amounting to eight points and four boards in just five minutes of game action.
“It’s Armando,” Ingram said. “He’s going to have a big game. Whether you’re big or not, he’s going to dominate. And having a team like that, I knew there was nothing they could do to stop him.”
After Wagner tied the game with a three, Bacot committed UNC’s fourth turnover of the first six minutes. The Seahawks capitalized on the Tar Heels’ sloppy offense, keeping the game within striking distance.
“I felt like at times we were out of character in the first half,” head coach Hubert Davis said. “We've just got to be better defensively. We talk about finishing each possession defensively. One, without fouling, and two, getting the rebound. [We] just got to do a better job at that.”
With the game tied, senior guard RJ Davis spearheaded a 7-0 run. Taking his defender one-on-one, Davis created separation and found the bottom of the bucket from way downtown. Next possession, Davis connected with a cutting graduate forward Jae’Lyn Withers who slammed down the oop.
Withers, a Charlotte native, was the star of the first half for UNC. He lived at the free throw line, converting on six shots from the charity stripe en route to a 10-point half. Despite the team’s sloppy basketball, the Tar Heels entered the break up by 12.
“We got a big-time performance out of J-Wit and that's something we need, especially going into March,” Bacot said. “And he's talented enough to do it.”
Bacot continued his dominance to start the second half. Wagner and its lack of size had no answer for him in the paint. An easy lay by Bacot over a Wagner defender gave the Tar Heels their largest lead of the game at 16 with a little over 14 minutes to go.
That lead ballooned up to 18 before Wagner drilled two shots behind the arc in quick succession. After that, though, the Tar Heels found their rhythm. With under 10 minutes to go, Ingram stepped into a top-of-the-key three and found nylon. A minute later, Cadeau drove to the bucket off a turnover and delivered a pinpoint pass to the leaping hands of Withers for his second alley-oop of the game.
With less than five minutes remaining, UNC put Wagner away for good. The Tar Heels got on the run as they had all game, scoring five quick points on the fast break. Bacot’s 20th point of the afternoon — another easy finish down low — forced Wagner to call a timeout down 26.
Out of the break, four of UNC’s starters were taken out for good, and the Tar Heels cruised to the second round.
“We got to clean up on the little things that we did wrong today,” RJ Davis said. “[We] can't have those kind of slip-ups that we had.”
The one-seeded Tar Heels will return to the Spectrum Center on Saturday to take on No. 8 seed Michigan State in a rematch of the 2009 national championship.
