UNC Basketball: Tar Heels survive against lowly Boston College Eagles

The UNC basketball program played another ugly, inefficient game against a bottom-tier conference opponent, but still managed to pull out the victory.

The North Carolina Tar Heels managed to eke out a victory over the Boston College Eagles on Wednesday night, but it certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty.

As a team, the Tar Heels shot just 29.1 percent from the floor, marking the first time in the 111-year history of the program that they’ve won a game while shooting less than 30 percent. They did, however, shoot a respectable 35.3 percent (6-for-17) from three-point range and 80 percent (20-for-25) at the free throw line.

Other positives from the Tar Heels’ sixth conference win include winning the rebounding battle by six after an incredibly slow start and turning the ball over just eight times for the game. That’s about where the warm and fuzzies end, though.

Among their 39 missed shots, and very similar to their most recent game against Virginia Tech, were a slew of off-target layups. That’s especially true for Armando Bacot, who saw his streak of 10 consecutive double-doubles end on a night that he hit just 1-of-10 shots from the floor. Most of his misses were from less than two feet away from the bucket. He’s now 2-for-23 from the floor since beginning the game 6-for-6 against the Hokies on Monday.

Caleb Love led the Tar Heels in scoring on another really inefficient shooting night — a common theme over his last half dozen games and this season in general — going 5-for-17 from the floor for 16 points. Outside of that, he gave the Tar Heels just two assists, one rebound and one steal despite playing most of the game.

Love’s running mate, R.J. Davis, did a little better, knocking down 4-of-9 shots for 13 points to go along with seven rebounds. Davis didn’t turn in a single assist on the night, though, and has just five in his last four games combined. Couple that with Love’s two assists against Boston College, and the entire UNC starting backcourt had just two assists to four turnovers.

Leaky Black had a solid game with eight points, five assists, four rebounds and three blocks, all while not committing a single turnover on the night. He was, without a doubt, the Tar Heels’ most efficient player on the night.

As bad as North Carolina was, Boston College was even worse. Although the Eagles hit a higher percentage of their shots overall (20-for-60, 33 percent), they connected on just 1-of-16 from long-range and only got to the free throw line eight times. They had just five assists to their nine turnovers and committed 19 personal fouls. Just one Eagle, Quinten Post, scored in double-figures — he had 10 points.

With the loss, Boston College falls to 8-11 overall and 3-6 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The Tar Heels improve to 14-6 on the season and 6-3 in conference play. North Carolina will be back at it on Saturday afternoon when they welcome the NC State Wolfpack to Chapel Hill for the first of two meetings this season.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for complete coverage of that game and everything on the UNC basketball program.