March Madness: Tar Heels beat No. 1 seed Baylor Bears in OT thriller

It was truly March Madness in Fort Worth on Saturday, as the UNC basketball program beat the top-seeded defending national champion Baylor Bears in overtime.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the first team to punch their ticket to the 2022 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. They beat the East Region’s No. 1 seed, the defending national champion Baylor Bears, by a final score of 93-86 in overtime.

That’s obviously an oversimplification of what happened in the thrilling Round of 32 game, which was among the worst officiated games I’ve seen in any sport ever. The Tar Heels dominated the game for the first 30 minutes and then everything went completely sideways. That was about the time that North Carolina’s Brady Manek was assessed a flagrant 2 foul resulting in his ejection from the game.

The Tar Heels also lost Caleb Love, who fouled out in regulation, and had to endure the remainder of the game with seldom-played reserves Justin McKoy, Puff Johnson, and Dontrez Styles. That didn’t stop North Carolina from pulling out a gritty, tenacious victory over the top-seeded Bears, as R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot helped the Tar Heels and their first-year head coach advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2019.

Davis had a game-high 30 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the floor, 5-of-10 from three-point range, and 9-of-10 at the free throw line. He added six assists and five rebounds while logging an absolutely bonkers 45 minutes on the court. Bacot recorded his program-best 27th double-double of the season with 15 points and 16 rebounds. The UNC big man and first-team All-ACC selection struggled shooting the ball (4-for-10 from the floor and 7-for-15 at the foul line) but gave the Tar Heels four assists and three huge blocks.

Before his ejection from the game, Brady Manek had 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting and 4-of-8 from long range. He also hit 6-of-8 at the foul line to go along with five rebounds and two assists. Styles played 25 crucial minutes off the UNC bench and scored nine points on seven shots.

The Tar Heels, who led by as many as 25 points but surrendered a 67-42 lead midway through the second half, hit 49.1 percent (28-for-57) of their shots overall, 44 percent (11-for-25) from long-range, and 70.3 percent (26-for-37) at the charity stripe. They outrebounded the Bears by nine (47-38), assisted on 22 of their 28 made buckets, and came out victorious despite turning the ball over 21 times.

Baylor was led by 27 points from Adam Flagler, who helped the Bears claw back from a massive deficit with his 10 made buckets and three treys. James Akinjo contributed 20 points on 6-for-20 shooting and 1-for-7 beyond the arc. Jeremy Sochan, who drew the ire of every UNC fan in the world for his dirty play on Saturday, finished the game with 15 points and roughly 25 personal fouls.

Baylor finished the season with a record of 27-7 while the 26-9 Tar Heels advance to play the winner of the St. Mary’s/UCLA game.

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