By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — RJ Davis wouldn’t let No. 3 North Carolina go down against Wake Forest.
The senior guard scored 23 of his career-high 36 points in the second half as the Tar Heels went from trailing by one at halftime to blowing out the Demon Deacons 85–64 Monday night at the Smith Center for their ninth consecutive victory.
“We need that from him every game,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “His just ability to do a number of things, but specifically his scoring. He can score with the ball in his hands, off the ball — his ability to be able to finish at the rim.”
RJ Davis’ two corner 3s, after UNC (16–3, 8–0 ACC) had missed its first eight shots outside the arc, were the springboard for the decisive 19–4 second-half run. He scored multiple 3-pointers for a school-record 16th straight game, with the sixth game of at least 25 points in his career, and heard the crowd chanting his name.
“It was a surreal moment,” RJ Davis said. “It felt great hearing the crowd chanting my name. For me to have a phenomenal game, especially at North Carolina, I’m all smiles.”
The senior guard, who didn’t commit a turnover, looked like he was in a zone, and he said it felt like it.
“I feel like I’m in my backyard just out there just hooping,” RJ Davis said. “It’s like a zone that every hooper knows. You’re just in the zone; it’s hard to get out of it. You can’t hear anything; you just see the ball and the basket, and that’s the type of zone I was in tonight.”
RJ Davis made sure that the Tar Heels stayed on a roll.
“For us to capitalize off these wins and do the things that we’re doing as a team is great,” RJ Davis said. “We’re doing a phenomenal job of just playing Carolina basketball, our brand of basketball. It’s fun to watch.”
Coach Davis marveled at the performance from RJ Davis.
“I think it’s more of just being able to score,” Coach Davis said of RJ Davis. “I think there’s a feeling of being comfortable and confident being a senior.”
Davis consistently picked apart Wake Forest’s drop coverage approach on defense.
“I was able to get to my spots, whether a pull-up, finishing strong at the rim or a floater. It was working all night for me,” Davis said.
When RJ Davis left the game with 44 seconds left, his coach hugged him, and they exchanged words.
“I just was telling him I’m really proud of him,” Coach Davis said. “I saw him when he was in high school. First time that I saw him at AAU, I went to Coach [Roy] Williams and I was like, ‘This guy might be pretty good. I think we need to take a look at him.’ I’ve known RJ for six years, and there’s a relationship there for a long time that’s nothing about basketball.”
Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes was impressed.
“RJ Davis is the best player in our league. He proved it tonight,” Forbes said.
UNC ascended to No. 3 in the AP poll earlier in the day but didn’t play like it for one half, until coming out of the dressing room with spirited play after Coach Davis challenged the team at halftime with a fiery speech.
“I felt like, defensively, we were making mistakes that allowed Wake Forest to be able to score, and I challenged them at halftime to be able to step it up defensively, and they did,” Coach Davis said.
Even after RJ Davis’ first two 3-pointers, Coach Davis, the last player to score at least 30 points against the Deacs (an 80-82 win on Feb. 8, 1992), wasn’t satisfied. He was super-animated in the huddle at the first television timeout of the second half. All but six points of UNC’s 19–4 run came after that timeout.
“We just had a slow start, and he was just trying to pump us up and get us going. He was just telling us to play harder,” Elliot Cadeau said.
Harrison Ingram said that the halftime rant from Coach Davis was the most passionate he’s seen since halftime of the Florida State, complete with the use of the closest he comes to a curse word: “fart.”
“A lot of yelling, a lot of trying to motivate us, telling us that they’re kicking our butt. ‘They were outphysicaling us; they’re bullying us. We don’t like to get bullied,’ ” Ingram said of his coach’s rant, noting that he’s never heard him curse.
Cadeau (14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal) had an excellent floor game, and Ingram (10 points, 14 rebounds) put up his second straight double-double and fourth of the season. Cormac Ryan pitched in 11 points.
UNC went nearly four scoreless minutes and trailed 5–4 before a driving RJ Davis jumper ended the drought. Davis scored eight of UNC’s first 12 points, going off screens and beating Wake Forest’s drop coverage. His jumper tied it at 12 before the second television timeout.
After a Ryan miss made UNC 0 of 6 on 3-point attempts with 14:41 left in the first half, the Tar Heels didn’t attempt another for more than nine minutes, and went on a 10–0 run to go up by eight after a pair of Cadeau fastbreak layups.
Wake Forest (13–6, 5–3) entered the game making 39.3% of its 3-point attempts but was 3 of 20 against UNC.
The Deacons only made one of their first nine 3-point attempts, a tough corner 3 from Parker Friedrichsen with Jae’Lyn Withers’ hand in his face, before a pair of Damari Monsanto 3s in the last two minutes gave the Deacons a 34–33 halftime lead.
Wake Forest never led again after a pair of Cadeau layups three minutes into the second half, and Ryan’s 3 with 11:46 left shoved the lead to 14.
RJ Davis’ final points on a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left gave UNC its biggest lead of the game at 24.
Hunter Sallis led the Deacons with 18 points.
NOTES — Carolina visits Florida State (12–7, 6–2) at 2 p.m. Saturday (ESPN), going for the season sweep after beating the Seminoles 78–70 in Chapel Hill on Dec. 2. The Seminoles lost at home Saturday to Clemson 87–67, and but beat Syracuse on Tuesday 85–69. … RJ Davis surpassed Justin Jackson’s record of 15 consecutive games with multiple 3-pointers set during UNC’s 2017 national championship season. … Davis’ previous best scoring game was 30 points against Baylor in 2022 and Arkansas earlier this season. … Davis is the first Tar Heel to have multiple 30-point games in a season since Garrison Brooks had two in the 2019–20 season. … Davis scored the third-most by a Tar Heel against the Deacons, bettered only by Bobby Lewis’ 37 points on Feb. 3, 1966, and Charlie Scott’s 43 on Jan. 17, 1970. … Davis is the first Tar Heel with three career 30-point games since Coby White (three) and Luke Maye (five) in the 2018–19 season. … That was the most points by an ACC player since Miami’s Isaiah Wong scored 26 against Cornell on Dec. 7, 2022. … It was the most points by a Tar Heel in the Smith Center since Tyler Hansbrough scored 39 against Clemson on Feb. 10, 2008. … Davis is the first Tar Heel to score 30 or more points and have zero turnovers since Jackson against Kentucky on Dec. 17, 2016 (34 and 0). … Carolina wore retro uniforms from the late 1960s. … It was UNC’s first halftime deficit since being down two in its 87–83 loss to Kentucky in Atlanta on Dec. 16, going 0 of 8 on 3-point attempts and assisting on only one of 13 field goals. It was the first half without a 3-pointer since going 0 of 11 against Notre Dame on Feb. 22 last season in the first half of the 63–59 win. … UNC’s seven-game ACC win streak is its longest since the 1993 national championship team won 10 in a row. … This is Carolina’s first nine-game win streak since an 11-game streak that began with the 2017 run to the NCAA title and included the first five games of the 2017–18 season. … UNC leads the all-time series with Wake Forest 81–18, including 26–5 in the Smith Center. … It was UNC’s ninth consecutive Smith Center win over Wake Forest, which last won as an unranked team 82–69 over No. 12 UNC on Jan. 20, 2010. That’s the Deacs’ only win in Chapel Hill since 2005. … Carolina hasn’t lost a game in 37 days since the 87–83 loss in Atlanta on Dec. 16 to No. 6 Kentucky.
No. 3 UNC 85, Wake Forest 64
ACC standings
| Team | League | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| No. 4 North Carolina | 17–3 | 25–6 |
| No. 11 Duke | 15–5 | 24–7 |
| Virginia | 13–7 | 22–9 |
| Pittsburgh | 12–8 | 21–10 |
| Clemson | 11–9 | 21–10 |
| Syracuse | 11–9 | 20–11 |
| Wake Forest | 11–9 | 19–12 |
| Virginia Tech | 10–10 | 18–13 |
| Florida State | 10–10 | 16–15 |
| N.C. State | 9–11 | 17–13 |
| Boston College | 8–12 | 17–14 |
| Georgia Tech | 7–12 | 14–17 |
| Notre Dame | 7–13 | 12–19 |
| Miami | 6–14 | 15–16 |
| Louisville | 3–17 | 8–22 |
Saturday’s games
No. 4 North Carolina 84, No. 11 Duke 79
Virginia Tech 82, Notre Dame 76
Florida State 83, Miami 75
Boston College 67, Louisville 61
Wake Forest 81, Clemson 76
Pittsburgh 81, N.C. State 73
Virginia 72, Georgia Tech 57
ACC tournament
March 12–16, Capitol One Arena, Washington
UNC season statistics
| 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
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