UNC Basketball: Tar Heels win wild one at Louisville

The UNC basketball program came away with a victory against the Louisville Cardinals following a highly controversial overtime period.

The North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Louisville Cardinals by a final score of 90-83 in overtime on Tuesday night, winning their fourth consecutive game and sixth in the last eight.

Their victory didn’t come without a fair amount of controversy, though, and it’s not difficult to understand why. And although I don’t condone spectators throwing things onto the court, I completely understand their frustration as it relates to this game and the final result.

The officiating in this one was bad and that’s actually being rather kind. A number of calls down the stretch were questionable at best, and most of them went the Tar Heels’ way. Although that’s surprising for a UNC fan base that’s seen its share of game-changing bad calls across a number of sports, it’s just the truth on this occasion.

Regardless, it was North Carolina that came out on top, and it wasn’t just a bad game from the zebras that got the Tar Heels to victory lane in this one. It was also a handful of clutch plays down the stretch from the Tar Heels and good games from Armando Bacot and Brady Manek, in particular.

Bacot walked away with his 17th double-double of the season with his 19 points and 22 rebounds. He added two assists, three steals, two blocks and shot 8-for-15 from the floor, better than any of his previous four games. Manek tied his season-high in points with 24, knocking down 10-of-18 from the floor and 4-of-9 beyond the arc. He also pulled down six rebounds and blocked two shots en route to one of his best overall performances of the season.

Leaky Black had another sensational game with a season-high 13 points on a 4-for-4 shooting performance that included 3-for-3 from three-point range and 2-for-2 at the foul line. He also gave the Tar Heels five rebounds, four assists and one steal, and didn’t commit a single turnover despite playing most of the game.

Caleb Love struggled shooting the ball again with an ice-cold 3-of-18 shooting performance from the floor and 1-of-6 from long-range. He did convert 9-of-10 at the free throw line to go along with a team-high six assists, but also turned the ball over a team-high four times. He finished the game with 16 points. His backcourt running mate, R.J. Davis, scored 18 points and hit 4-of-8 shots from downtown.

North Carolina shot 43.7 percent (31-for-71) for the game and 46.2 percent (12-for-26) from three. They knocked down 16-of-20 at the foul line, staying consistent with their ACC-best 78 percent free throw conversion rate. The Tar Heels improved to 16-6 on the season and 8-3 in conference play.

Louisville was led by junior reserve guard El Ellis, who scored a game-high 25 points. Matt Cross had 13 points and 15 rebounds and Sydney Curry scored 10. No other Cardinals player scored more than eight. As a team, they held an unbelievable 44-0 edge in bench scoring, as the Tar Heels played just three reserves for very limited minutes and didn’t get a single point from the trio (McKoy, Walton, Johnson). With the loss, the Cardinals drop to 11-11 overall and 5-7 in the ACC.

The Tar Heels will be back out on the court on Saturday evening when they take on the Duke Blue Devils at the Dean Smith Center in the first of two meetings this season.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for complete coverage of that game as well as all the latest on the UNC basketball program.