UNC Basketball’s second-half comeback comes up short
Without star big man Armando Bacot, the UNC basketball program dropped its first ACC contest of the season on Sunday at Virginia Tech.
Just minutes before tip-off, the UNC basketball program announced two major injury updates.
The first was that sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn would be sidelined due to a broken bone in his hand suffered in Saturday’s practice.
To add insult to injury (no pun intended), preseason All-American Armando Bacot would not start, as he is dealing with a shoulder injury.
Not having both players, Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels had to rely on their depth, but unfortunately came up short against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Sunday afternoon.
72. 441. 80. 447. Final
The Tar Heels led for just one minute and 26 seconds in this one, as the Hokies had plenty of opportunities to run away with this one.
North Carolina got into some foul trouble early, as Caleb Love, RJ Davis, and Leaky Black all had two first-half fouls. This wasn’t ideal, given that Bacot was already sidelined, as the Tar Heels needed their veterans to be able to play freely.
The offensive rhythm was an issue early on, as the UNC basketball program scored just 27 first-half points while trailing by 10 at the break. They were rather fortunate, given that it could’ve been much worse after 20 minutes of play, especially considering the Tar Heels didn’t have a single offensive rebound in the first half!
Virginia Tech was up by as many as 18 in the second half, but the Tar Heels kept pushing. With some quality minutes from Seth Trimble and Tyler Nickel, North Carolina was able to cut the lead to as little as three, but couldn’t put together enough stops to complete the comeback.
Without Bacot, Virginia Tech completely dominated the paint, as they outscored North Carolina 42-30 in that area. Justyn Mutts had himself a day, as he scored a game-high 27 points on an efficient 12-16 shooting.
The bulk of the Tar Heels’ scoring came from three of its starters. Caleb Love, RJ Davis, and Pete Nance (who had a double-double) all contributed 18 points. Nickel added eight points and Trimble had six of his own, but no other UNC basketball player had more than two points in this one.
Although North Carolina lost this game, there are a few positives you could take from it:
-For starters, the likes of Love and Davis shot the basketball much better. Maybe this could be the turning point to get them both back on track offensively.
-Even though you want to see it for a full 40 minutes, the intensity and effort in the second half (especially from the 10-minute mark on) was very encouraging.
-Davis was forced to use his bench, and got some solid production, especially from Nickel and Trimble. With Dunn sidelined for an extended period of time, the Tar Heels are going to need both of those guys to continue developing.
The four-game losing streak marks the Tar Heels’ longest streak since they lost seven in a row during the 2019-2020 season. It hasn’t been an easy stretch of games by any means, but the positive news is, the UNC basketball program will finally return home for their next contest as they look to end the current skid.
dark. Next. D'Marco Dunn to miss several weeks
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