By R.L. Bynum
Caleb Love has never been shy about taking a shot in a pressure situation on a national stage, and he showed that again Saturday in Las Vegas.
His last one, a long 3-point attempt that would have won the game, didn’t fall, though, after repeatedly coming up clutch after halftime on a day when he scored 26 points, four 3-pointers, made all four free-throw attempts and pulled down five rebounds.
“I thought it was going down,” Love said. “I probably should have got it to the paint or something like that. It was three seconds left, I tried to create some space and get a shot up. I’ll learn from this shot.”
Love’s shot bounced off the back of the rim with 1.2 seconds left in the second overtime as No. 14 Florida Atlantic (10–2) won a highly entertaining double-overtime game over No. 4 Arizona 96–95 in the Desert Classic at T-Mobile Arena for the Owls’ first win over a top-10 team in program history.
“I figured they were gonna come out and switch a bunch of things,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “So, we just wanted to put the ball in Caleb or [Pelle Larsson’s] hands at the end there. I figured one of them was about to make a play off the dribble. We got a shot. Caleb’s a big shot-taker, and he’s a big shot-maker. I feel good about the look, and it was just in and out.”
The Wildcats (9–2) couldn’t find a way to stop Florida Atlantic’s Johnell Davis, who played 49 minutes, collecting 35 points, nine rebounds and three assists for the program that made the Final Four last season.
Love, who was 8 of 25 from the floor and 4 of 12 from 3-point range, has scored at least 20 points in three of the last four games after doing it only once in Arizona’s first seven games. He scored at least 20 points for Carolina 11 times last season.
But his 32% shooting from the floor was his fourth-worst shooting game of the season. Love is shooting 30.6% from 3-point range for the season after hitting 29.9% from outside the arc last season.
Arizona led by as many as 14 points midway through the first half and had a 37–31 halftime edge, with Love only scoring seven points.
“It’s a game of runs in basketball, and so hats off to them,” Love said. “They executed some of those plays, and they had big-time players to make big-time shots. So, unfortunately, we came up on the short end of the stick, but this will definitely help us.”
After the Wildcats trailed by eight with 12:37 left in the second half, Love helped rally them.
His 3-pointer and layup keyed a 10–0 run that turned a seven-point deficit into a three-point lead with 4:28 left in regulation.
His long 3-pointer with 1:13 remaining in regulation gave Arizona a two-point lead before a dunk by FAU’s Vadislav Goldin with seven seconds left sent the game into the first overtime.
Love scored seven of Arizona’s 11 points in the first overtime, tying it on a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left and on two free throws with five seconds left.
Love tied it again on two free throws with 1:27 left in the second overtime after drawing a foul pulling down a rebound at the other end. But after Giancarlo Rosaldo’s free throw gave the Owls a one-point lead with 57 seconds left, Love missed a twisting layup attempt in traffic with 43 seconds left before missing his last-second shot.
Equally big for Arizona was center Oumar Ballo, who had 13 points, 21 rebounds, three steals and a block.
Arizona goes into the holiday break after a challenging four-game stretch. The Wildcats beat No. 23 Wisconsin 97–73 on Dec. 9, lost to No. 3 Purdue 92–84 on Dec. 16 and beat Alabama 87–74 on Dec. 20.
“It just helps us going into the long run, especially going into Pac-12 play, and then it’s gonna help us obviously going into March as far these big-time games, against these big-time teams,” Love said. “Get into situations that we may not be able to, like Coach says, simulate in practice. I’m glad Coach put this schedule together because we know what to expect going down and going forward.”
Dontrez Styles had 12 points and two 3-pointers in Georgetown’s 81–51 loss Friday at Marquette as the Hoyas fell to 7–6 overall and 0–2 in the Big East.
Justin McKoy collected 11 points, two 3-pointers, and seven rebounds in Hawaii’s 73–68 loss Friday to Georgia Tech in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic, playing on the Rainbow Warriors’ home court.
Hawaii (8–4) lost to TCU 65–51 Sunday in the third-place game, with McKoy contributing three points, five rebounds and three steals while battling foul trouble.
Will Shaver didn’t play in UAB’s 79–78 Friday home victory over Drake.
Checking in on 11 former Heels
Destiny Adams, Rutgers forward
6–3 | Junior | UNC 2021–23 (2 seasons)
77–69 Wednesday, March 6, loss vs. Minnesota in first round of Big Ten tournament — Started; 38 minutes, 31 points, 12–24 FG, 0–1 3FG, 7–12 FT, career-high 24 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 fouls, 4 turnovers, 1 block, 1 steal, -11, 16.7 game score
Season statistics — 32 games, 32 starts, 15.6 points, 50.1 FG%, 1–8 3FG, 68.3 FT%, 7.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.8 of a block
Record — 8–24; season over
D’Marco Dunn, Penn State guard
6–5, 195 pounds | Junior | UNC 2021–23 (2 seasons)
61–59 Thursday, March 13, loss vs. Indiana in second round of Big Ten tournament — Didn’t start; 25 minutes, 9 points, 2–5 FG, 1–2 3PFG, 2 rebounds, 1 foul, -11, 4.9 game score
Season statistics — 33 games, 12 starts; 6.8 points, 39.5 FG%, 36.6 3P%, 73.8 FT%, 1.8 rebounds, 0.6 of an assist
Record — 16–17; season over
Dawson Garcia, Minnesota forward
6–11, 230 pounds | Junior | UNC 2020–21 (part of 1 season)
73–72 Tuesday win at Butler in the first round of the NIT — Started; 34 minutes, 25 points, 11–19 FG, 1–4 3FG, 2–2 FT, 4 rebounds, 4 fouls, 2 turnovers
76–64 Sunday loss at Indiana State in the second round of the NIT — Started; 28 minutes, 6 points, 2–5 FG, 2–2 FT, 12 rebounds, 4 fouls, 4 turnovers, 2 blocks
Season statistics — 31 games, 31 starts; 17.6 points (led team), 48.6 FG%, 31.9 3P%, 80.2 FT%, 6.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.0 block
Record — 19–15; season over
Puff Johnson, Penn State wing
6–8, 205 pounds | Senior | UNC 2020–23 (3 seasons)
61–59 Thursday, March 13, loss vs. Indiana in second round of Big Ten tournament — Started; 31 minutes, 16 points, 4–11 FG, 2–6 3PFG, 7–7 FT, 8 rebounds, 4 fouls, 2 steals, -5, 12.1 game score
Season statistics — 29 games, 12 starts; 7.3 points, 42.2 FG%, 33.3 3P%, 78.5 FT%, 3.1 rebounds, 0.7 of a steal
Record — 16–17; season over
Caleb Love, Arizona guard
6–4, 205 pounds | Senior | UNC 2020–23 (3 seasons)
85–65 Thursday win over Long Beach State in the first round of NCAA tournament quarterfinals in Salt Lake City — Started; 34 minutes, 18 points, 6–17 FG, 3–12 3FG, 3–5 FT, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, 2 steals, +24, 18.0 game score
78–68 Saturday win vs. Dayton in the second round of NCAA tournament in Salt Lake City — Started; 35 minutes, 19 points, 6–15 FG, 3–8 3FG, 4–6 FT, 3 rebounds, 1 foul, 5 assists, 4 turnovers, 1 block 1 steal, +6, 11.8 game score
Season statistics — 35 games, 35 starts; 18.1 points (leads team), 41.8 FG%, 34.3 3P%, 83.6 FT%, 4.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.1 steals
Record — 27–8; Rank — No. 6; Next game — 7:09 Thursday vs. Clemson in NCAA Sweet 16 in Los Angeles, CBS
Justin McKoy, Hawaii guard
6–8, 230 pounds | Graduate student | UNC 2021–23 (2 seasons)
68–65 Friday, March 15, loss vs. UC Davis in semifinals of Big West tournament — Started; 33 minutes, 10 points, 3–11 FG, 0–3 3FG, 4–4 FT, 6 rebounds, 1 assists, 3 fouls, -9, 1.6 game score
Season statistics — 34 games, 34 starts, 12.4 points, 47.4 FG%, 36.8 3P%, 87.2 FT%, 6.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists
Record — 20–14; season over
Tyler Nickel, Virginia Tech guard
6–7, 225 pounds | Sophomore | UNC 2022–23 (1 season)
74–58 Tuesday win vs. Richmond in the first round of NIT — Didn’t start; 17 minutes, 3 points, 1–1 FG, 1–1 FT, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 foul, +2, 3.3 game score
81–73 Saturday loss at Ohio State in the second round of NIT — Didn’t start; 12 minutes, 6 points, 2–7 FG, 2–4 3PFG, 2 fouls, 1 turnover, -9, 0.1 game score
Season statistics — 34 games, 7 starts; 8.8 points, 43.8 FG%, 39.9 3P%, 82.0 FT%, 2.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists
Record — 19–15; season over
Will Shaver, UAB center
6–10, 270 pounds | Redshirt sophomore | UNC 2022–23 (1 season)
69–65 Friday loss vs. San Diego State in the first round of NCAA tournament in Spokane, Wash. — 4 minutes, 1 point, 1–2 FT, -4, 0.6 game score
Season statistics — 18 games, 87 minutes, 20 points, 6–17 FG, 0–2 3FG, 8–16 FT, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 steal
Record — 23–12; season over
Dontrez Styles, Georgetown wing
6–6, 212 pounds | Junior | UNC 2021–23 (2 seasons)
74–56 Wednesday, March 13, loss vs. Providence in first round of Big East tournament — Started; 35 minutes, 7 points, 3–7 FG, 0–3 3FG, 1–5 FT, 9 rebounds, 1 assists, 3 fouls, 2 turnovers
Season statistics — 32 games, 32 starts, 12.8 points, 43.0 FG%, 36.8 3P%, 77.6 FT%, 5.8 rebounds, 0.8 of an assist, 0.6 of a block
Record — 9–23; season over
Kennedy Todd-Williams, Ole Miss guard
6–0 | Senior | UNC 2020–23 (3 seasons)
67–55 Saturday win vs. Marquette in South Bend, Ind., in first round of NCAA tournament — Started; 35 minutes, 15 points, 5–13 FG, 2–4 3FG, 3–6 FT, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 foul, 2 steals, +15, 12.2 game score
71–56 Monday loss at Notre Dame in the second round of NCAA tournament — Started; 33 minutes, 15 points, 5–12 FG, 1–6 3FG, 4–4 FT, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 fouls, 3 steals, -12, 9.4 game score
Season statistics — 33 games, 25 starts; 10.6 points, 38.4 FG%, 26.7 3PFG%, 78.0 FT%, 4.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals
Record — 24–9; season over
Kerwin Walton, Texas Tech guard
6–5, 200 pounds | Senior | UNC 2020–22 (2 seasons)
80–67 Thursday loss to N.C. State in Pittsburgh in the first round of the NCAA tournament — Started; 20 minutes, 9 points, 3–5 FG, 3–4 3PFG, 5 rebounds, 4 fouls, -2, 8.2 game score
Season statistics — 32 games, 25 starts, 8.4 points, 49.5 FG%, 47.0 3P%, 72.7 FT%, 2.3 rebounds, 0.5 of an assist
Record — 23–11; season over
Photo via @ArizonaMBB
tarheeltribune.com 
