By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — How deep will Coach Hubert Davis go into his bench this season? He may have provided a hint on Friday night.

In No. 20 North Carolina’s 77–52 home victory full of crowd-pleasing highlights Friday at the Smith Center over UC Riverside, only six players played more than 15 minutes — the five starters and freshman point guard Elliot Cadeau — before multiple late substitutions.

Ten players played in the first half, though, and Davis said that they’ve earned the minutes.

Ahead of tougher games next week in the Bahamas, the Tar Heels (3–0) coasted after scoring the first 19 points of the second half with tough defense and led by as many as 32 points.

“The way they responded in the second half defensively, I thought was special,” Coach Davis said. “That stretch would have been great if we we built on that. You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal. It was really nice stretch and was fun to watch.”

There were plenty of offensive highlights to go around for Carolina, which didn’t turn the ball over until a bad Cadeau pass in the last two minutes of the first half.

Good trends continued, with Armando Bacot scoring inside (21 points and 7 rebounds) and the Heels piling up blocked shots (eight after getting eight in the first two games), as well as a bad one: struggling from 3-point range and giving up plenty of them. 

UNC was expected to have good perimeter shooting from multiple players and that may be the case. But the Tar Heels missed 12 of their first 14 3-point attempts before an RJ Davis 3 capped a 14–0 run to start the second half. That’s after going 5 of 13 against Lehigh. UC Riverside scored five first-half 3-pointers after Lehigh hit 13.

Coach Davis said the message from day one was to play good defense and he reinforced that at halftime.

“I’ve told him as soon as they got off the plane before they got on campus — you’ve got to be locked in on defense. There are going to be nights when we’re not shooting the ball,” he said. “But what is sustainable and what happens every night is playing defense, rebounding and taking care of basketball.”

Jalen Washington, who scored 11 points, showed he’s a solid perimeter threat with two 3-pointers, and Harrison Ingram scored 10 points with a 3-pointer. Even Bacot hit a 3 in the second half (the second of his career).

Cormac Ryan, who was expected to be prolific outside the arc, was 0 for 4 Friday and is 3 of 14 for the season.

“Cormac is a basketball player, he’s not just a shooter,” Coach Davis said. “He can shoot and pass, his effort, his experience — all those things. He didn’t shoot the ball the way you would want him to, but I have zero concern about that.”

Washington’s 3-pointer at one end and block highlighted an early 9–0 UNC run. A Harrison Ingram 3-pointer ignited a 17–0 UNC run — including a roof-raising Seth Trimble slam dunk (who scored 11 points for the game) and 10 Bacot points — that ballooned the lead to 21.

The Highlanders finished the first half with a 17–7 run, including three of their five first-half 3-pointers, to trim Carolina’s lead to 37–26 by halftime.  

“What I was disappointed that we got outrebounded,” Coach Davis said after UC Riverside had a 38–37 edge under the boards. “That’s a foundational piece for us; it’s always been that way for Carolina, rebounding the basketball and being one of the best in the country. That’s an area we definitely have to improve.”

By the time UC Riverside (1–3) scored for the first time in the second half with 10:33 left after 19 straight UNC points, the size of the Tar Heels lead was equal to the number of Highlanders points (28).

Zayden High scored his first college points on a dunk with 6:45 left.

NOTES  — The Tar Heels head to the Bahamas next week for the Battle 4 Atlantis, meeting Northern Iowa (KenPom ranking of 105) at noon Wednesday in the first round. The Panthers, who went 14–18 last season and are picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference, are 1–1 after losing 83–77 in overtime on Nov. 7 at North Texas and beating Loras at home 90–50. Northern Iowa plays at South Florida at 4 p.m. Sunday (ESPN+). … On Thanksgiving Day, UNC will face either No. 21 Villanova (37 KenPom ranking) or Texas Tech (40), with the potential opposition two days later No. 14 Arkansas (15), Michigan (23), Memphis (27) or Stanford (68). … This was the first meeting between UNC and UC Riverside. Carolina will play UC Riverside again next season on its way to the Maui Invitational. … Carolina wore blue uniforms for the fourth time in the last 33 years because UC Riverside requested that it wear white uniforms. UNC wore blue for the 1990 UConn game in the ACC/Big East Challenge (79–74 win), the New Year’s Eve game against UNC Wilmington in 2013 (84–51 win) and the Duke game in 2020 (98–96 overtime loss). … UNC walk-on Rob Landry wasn’t in uniform for the game.

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No. 20 UNC 77, UC Riverside 52

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UNC lineup combinations

Score	Time	1	2	3	4	5	Segment score
Starters	20:00	Davis	Wojcik	Ryan	Ingram	Bacot	4–4
4–4	16:28	Cadeau	Davis			Washington	5–0
9–4	14:23					Bacot	9–5
16–9	12:06		Trimble	Wojcik	Withers		4–0
20–9	10:27	Davis					6–0
26–9	9:02			Ryan	Ingram		4–0
30–9	8:39					Washington	0–2
30–11	8:01		Ryan	Ingram	High		3–6
33–17	5:49	Cadeau	Davis				2–0
35–17	4:51				Withers	Bacot	0–3
35–20	3:02		Trimble				2–6
37–26	22.3	Davis	Wojcik	Ryan	Ingram		4–0
41–26	17:01(2)	Cadeau	Davis				3–0
44–26	15:49			Ingram	Withers		7–0
51–26	14:02					Washington	0–0
51–26	13:01		Trimble	Ryan			7–2
58–28	9:27	Davis			High	Bacot	0–0
58–28	8:56			Ingram			1–1
61–29	8:08		Wojcik				7–9
68–38	4:15	Cadeau	Trimble	Ryan	Withers	Washington	2–3
70–41	2:17		Trimble	Wojcik	High	Okonkwo	7–8
77–49	0:37	Lebo	Farris				0–3
77–52	Final

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UNC season statistics

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Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
27	Friday	W, 117–53	vs. St. Augustine’s	Exhibition
	November
6	Monday	W, 86–70	vs. Radford	1–0
12	Sunday	W, 90–68	vs. Lehigh	2–0
17	Friday	W, 77–52	vs. UC Riverside	3–0
			Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas
22	Wednesday	W, 91–69	Northern Iowa	4–0
23	Thursday	L, 83–81, OT	Villanova	4–1
24	Friday	W, 87–72	Arkansas	5–1
			ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
29	Wednesday	W, 100–92	vs. No. 6 Tennessee	6–1
	December
2	Saturday	W, 78–70	vs. Florida State	7–1, 1–0 ACC
			Jimmy V Classic in New York
5	Tuesday	L, 87–67	No. 1 Connecticut	7–2
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
16	Saturday	L, 87–83	No. 12 Kentucky	7–3
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
20	Wednesday	W, 81–69	Oklahoma	8–3
			—————————
29	Friday	W, 105–60	vs. Charleston Southern	9–3
	January
2	Tuesday	W, 70–57	at Pittsburgh	10–3, 2–0 ACC
6	Saturday	W, 65–55	at Clemson	11–3, 3–0 ACC
10	Wednesday	W, 67–54	at N.C. State	12–3, 4–0 ACC
13	Saturday	W, 103–67	vs. Syracuse	13–3, 5–0 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 86–70	vs. Louisville	14–3, 6–0 ACC
20	Saturday	W, 76–66	vs. Boston College	15–3, 7–0 ACC
22	Monday	W, 85–64	vs. Wake Forest	16–3, 8–0 ACC
27	Saturday	W, 75–68	at Florida State	17–3, 9–0 ACC
30	Tuesday	L, 74–73	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 9–1 ACC
	February
3	Saturday	W, 93–84	vs. No. 13 Duke	18–4, 10–1 ACC
6	Tuesday	L, 80–76	vs. Clemson	18–5, 10–2 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–72	at Miami	19–5, 11–2 ACC
13	Tuesday	L, 86–79	at Syracuse	19–6, 11–3 ACC
17	Saturday	W, 96–81	vs. Virginia Tech	20–6, 12–3 ACC
24	Saturday	W, 54–44	at Virginia	21–6, 13–3 ACC
26	Monday	W, 75–71	vs. Miami	22–6, 14–3 ACC
	March
2	Saturday	W, 79–70	vs. N.C. State	23–6, 15–3 ACC
5	Tuesday	W, 84–51	vs. Notre Dame	24–6, 16–3 ACC
9	Saturday	W, 84–79	at No. 13 Duke	25–6, 17–3 ACC
			ACC tournament Washington
14	Thursday	W, 92–67	Quarterfinals: Florida State	26–6
15	Friday	W, 72–65	Semifinals: Pittsburgh	27–6
16	Saturday	L, 84–76	Final: N.C. State	27–7
			NCAA tournament
21	Thursday	W, 90–62	First round in Charlotte: Wagner	28–7
23	Saturday	W, 85–69	Second round in Charlotte: Michigan State	29–7
28	Thursday	L, 89–87	Sweet 16 in Los Angeles: No. 19 Alabama	29–8

Photo via @UNC_Basketball