UNC Basketball: Tar Heels topple Cardinals, earn 20th victory of season

The UNC basketball program earned its 20th victory of the season in a tightly-contested battle with the Louisville Cardinals on Monday night.

Four Tar Heels notched double-digit points on Monday night, as North Carolina beat Louisville by a final score of 70-63. UNC’s Brady Manek led all scorers with 17 points on a 6-for-12 shooting performance that included 3-for-9 from three-point range and 2-for-2 at the free throw line. Manek added three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block while logging 33 minutes on the court.

R.J. Davis scored 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor, 2-of-5 beyond the arc and 4-of-4 at the foul line. He had one rebound, two assists and three steals for the game and didn’t turn the ball over a single time in 36 minutes of play.

Fellow sophomore guard Caleb Love also scored 16 points, though he wasn’t nearly as efficient as Davis. Love hit just 6-of-14 shots for the game and 1-of-7 from long-range, but he did convert all three of his shots at the charity stripe. And although he recorded five assists, four rebounds and two steals, he turned the ball over a season-high seven times.

Love came into Monday night’s game averaging 2.7 turnovers per game, and it was the third occasion this season that he’s committed six or more in a game. He played all 40 minutes of the game against Louisville, though, so fatigue certainly may have been a factor in his lack of ball control.

Armando Bacot earned his 21st double-double of the season with 12 points and 15 rebounds, and Leaky Black scored seven points in 32 minutes. The entire UNC bench combined to score just two points — both at the foul line — while playing a meager 20 minutes.

The Tar Heels shot a healthy 49.1 percent (26-for-53) for the game and 84.6 percent (11-for-13) at the free throw line. They only hit 28 percent (7-for-25) of their threes, committed 13 turnovers and assisted on just 12 of their 26 made buckets. They narrowly outrebounded the Cardinals by a margin of 32-30.

Louisville, 12-15 overall and 6-11 in ACC play, had three players score in double-figures against the Tar Heels: Jae’Lyn Withers, Malik Williams and Dre Davis, who each had 10. They shot similarly to the Tar Heels with a 45 percent (27-for-60) mark from the floor and an identical 28 percent (7-for-25) from downtown. The Cardinals also had 13 turnovers, just 10 assists in 40 minutes and only made it to the free throw line five times.

The Tar Heels, 20-8 on the season and 12-5 in conference play, will now prepare for their third-to-last game of the season, a date with the NC State Wolfpack in Raleigh’s PNC Arena on Saturday.

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