UNC Basketball: Bacot and the bigs lead Tar Heels to victory

A season-high 21 points from Armando Bacot helps lead the UNC basketball team to a ACC road victory against Pittsburgh.

Behind arguably their best offensive performance of the season, the UNC basketball program picked up their sixth ACC victory of the season on the road against Pittsburgh.

The story of the game was the dominance of the Tar Heels big men. Overall, the trio of Armando Bacot, Garrison Brooks and Day’Ron Sharpe combined for 43 points on 19-26 shooting to go along with 23 total rebounds.

The big men trio got the Tar Heels offense going early, as they combined for 25 of the team’s 34 first half points. This marked the second straight contest in which Roy Williams’ team has had two big men score in double figures through the first 20 minutes of play.

Heading into the second half, the Tar Heels held a seven-point lead. At one point, it looked as if North Carolina was ready to pull away for good.

At the under 8-minute timeout, North Carolina held a 16 point lead. The offense started to catch fire, as they made eight consecutive shots from the floor.

However, Pittsburgh would not go away easily. An 11-2 Panther run over a 4:09 minute span cut the Tar Heels lead to as little as five points.

Although he did not have a great shooting night, Caleb Love arguably hit the biggest shot of the game. With just under three minutes to play, Kerwin Walton found Love for a wide-open three pointer, Love’s first and only three of the game, to put the game essentially out of reach.

Overall, the Tar Heels shot 52.5% from the floor, including an impressive 60.7% in the second half. Although they didn’t shoot well from beyond-the-arc, the dominance inside the paint was too much for the Panthers to handle.

Bacot was the star of the night the Tar Heels, as he recorded his fourth double-double of the season and 15th for his collegiate career. This is the fourth time in the sophomore’s career that he has scored 20+ points in a game, his first since he scored 21 points against Clemson in January of 2020.

After averaging over 18 points-per-game against the Panthers last season, senior big man Garrison Brooks also had an impressive night. Brooks scored 16 points on 8-11 shooting, including six rebounds and two assists. Walton was the only other Tar Heel to score in double figures, as he scored 10 points in 17 minutes of action.

As a whole, the offense was moving at a very efficient rate on Tuesday night. The Tar Heels picked up 22 assists on 32 made shots, and were able to limit their turnovers (which has been a constant issue for this team early on this season).

With the win, the Tar Heels have tied last season’s ACC win total. As this team continues to gain experience, you can tell that they are starting to get on the right track. They still have a ways to go, but if they can continue to develop, they could be a force to be reckoned with over the last few weeks of the regular season.

The Tar Heels have an “open” date in their schedule on Saturday. As it is possible that schedule changes may be coming, it appears like Roy Williams’ team will not be back in action until next Tuesday on the road against Clemson.

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