By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Armando Bacot rediscovered his offensive game, which was bad news for Duke, with Harrison Ingram putting on another dazzling display.
After combining for 19 points in the previous three games, Bacot’s vintage aggressiveness returned with 25 points and Ingram scored a season-high 21 points to lead No. 3 North Carolina to a huge 93–84 win Saturday night over No. 7 Duke at the Smith Center.
“I think I was a lot more aggressive,” Bacot, who excelled despite adversity. He hadn’t eaten all day after biting his tongue, he was cramping and then chipped multiple teeth in an encounter with Duke’s Kyle Filipowski. “A lot of times when I catch it in the post sometimes, I’m looking to pass, not force too much and not do too much. But I thought today, I really just wanted to take it to his chest, regardless of who was there, and just go up and shoot.”
Ingram was all over the floor, from scoring a career-high five 3-pointers to pulling down 13 rebounds to tying his career-high with four steals.
Duke (16–5, 7–3 ACC) could not stop that one-two offensive punch of Bacot and Ingram.
“It takes us to a different level,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said, “because of them offensively and the year that RJ [Davis] is having, that makes it very difficult from an offensive standpoint for teams to stop us. Plus, those 3s by Harrison were huge for us.”
Freshman guard Elliot Cadeau had another good floor game with seven points and three assists, and Seth Trimble added 10 points, two rebounds and two assists to his solid defense.
Two huge takeaways from this game are that any hint about Bacot taking a back seat on this team was wrong, and if you try faceguard RJ Davis (17 points, two 3-pointers, five assists), the Tar Heels (18–4, 10–1) have plenty of other weapons to hurt you.
Coach Davis heard that Bacot talked about a back-seat role, and he told his graduate center that he was having none of that mentality.
“I wanted to tell him that I never said that,” Coach Davis said. “That’s not what we want from you, and that’s not what we need. It’s really important for me for Armando to finish out his career the right way.”
After the Georgia Tech game, Bacot and Coach Davis had a productive meeting.
“We had a really nice time talking together about him and what is needed for him personally and for our team to be the best that we can be,” Coach Davis said. “I think, for one, he needed to be a little more aggressive in working to get him the ball, and I tweaked a few things in our offense to be able to get him the ball in easier spots.”
The latter part of the discussion was about different ways to get him the ball and make him more of a factor.
“Those two practices, he drew up a lot of different plays, and he’s was giving us a lot of different looks,” said Bacot, who was proud that he stayed out of foul trouble. “It was tough for them to double-team us. They didn’t really know what I was doing.”
Deploying Bacot in new ways that Duke hadn’t seen on video, combined with the center’s dogged determination, was a potent combination.
“Just more misdirection, rip screens to give me the ball on the move and get the big off my body so it wasn’t as easy to double,” said Bacot, who was the second Tar Heel and first since Charlie Scott to compile at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against Duke.
Coach Davis says that Bacot dominating inside opens up everything else for the Tar Heels.
“It gives us space to drive and penetrate and get to the basket,” Coach Davis said. “It gets us open shots on the perimeter. It gets us closer to the penalty. So, there are a number of benefits for us when Armando is aggressive and plays in the way he did tonight.”
Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach dogged RJ Davis with face-guarding defense the whole game, which the senior guard said showed some respect. But he said he hadn’t been guarded that closely since high school.
“They did a good job of just trying to get the ball out of my hands, and I think that was their defensive plan, just to not let me find my rhythm,” RJ Davis said.
Defense made a big difference again for UNC, which had a 19–7 edge in points off turnovers.
Ingram, RJ Davis and Cormac Ryan (10 points, two 3-pointers) helped stretch the floor with their perimeter shooting, as Carolina was efficient offensively with 18 assists against only five turnovers. It took nearly 32 minutes for Cadeau to commit the first turnover by a UNC guard.
“When we’re hitting from the perimeter, there’s nobody that can stop us,” Ingram said. “The downhill drivers we have with Elliot and Seth, the 3-point shooters we have with RJ, Cormac, me and Seth, the dominant post players we have with Armando [and others], I don’t know how you stop us.”
An Ingram steal and layup capped a 10–2 UNC run to give the Heels an early 10–4 lead. The lead fluctuated before back-to-back Jeremy Roach 3-pointers tied it at 22 with 8:42 left in the first half. The Heels opened a six-point lead on a Ryan steal and layup.
“They were great,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said of Carolina. “I thought their defense bothered us in the first half. But, I think the main story for me was the loose balls. When you look throughout the game, they were hungrier to get them, and it turned into, I bet, close to 15, 20 points.
Ingram’s 3-pointer ignited a 7–0 Carolina run to push the lead to 10 on a Cadeau jumper with 3:10 left in the first half. After the lead had dipped to six, back-to-back Bacot buckets gave UNC a 45–35 halftime lead and the most points in a first half against Duke since an 82–78 win on Feb. 8, 2018.
“He was relentless,” Scheyer said of Ingram. “Just the loose balls that I’m talking about, he got a lot of them. I don’t know how many, but he got a lot. He played with a great energy, a great physicality. He’s relentless going after the ball, and when he’s shooting the way he did tonight, it’s a really good player, bottom line.”
A 13–6 run, which included an Ingram 3-pointer and a short jumper, shoved the lead to 15 with 13:16 left. A Filipowski 3-pointer and Roach jumper cut Duke’s deficit to eight with 7:51 as they shot 60% in the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Two Bacot free throws and a corner Ryan 3-pointer started a 10–5 run to push the lead to 13 after it got cut to eight, and it never got closer than that afterward. RJ Davis made five free throws in the final 1:25, and Bacot added an exclamation point on a dunk with 10 seconds left.
“You can play really well and compete your butt off and still lose to them because they are a really good team,” Scheyer said. “But, we didn’t compete at the level we needed to have a chance to beat this team tonight. And that’s what I am disappointed about.”
Freshman guard Jared McCain led Duke with 23 points and 11 rebounds, with Filipowski adding 22 points and Roach scoring 20.
“They out-competed us, for sure,” McCain said. “They got those 50-50 balls and it translated. Ryan hit the 3 in the corner; it felt like they hit a three every time we didn’t get a loose ball. We didn’t compete. That’s what it came down to.”
NOTES — The Tar Heels are back at home at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) against Clemson (14–7, 4–6), which lost at home Saturday to Virginia 66–65. UNC won the first meeting at Clemson on Jan. 6, 65–55. … Bacot passed Louisville’s Wes Unseld and Detroit’s Dave DeBusschere for the 20th-most rebounds in NCAA history. Bacot has 1,553 (Unseld 1,551 and DeBusschere 1,552). … RJ Davis, the ACC’s leading scorer, passed three-time first-team All-America Mike O’Koren (1,765) for 16th in UNC history with 1,772 career points. … UNC honored Tyler Hansbrough at halftime for his induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. … Bacot is the 12th Tar Heel to eclipse 150 points against Duke. … The capacity crowd included Sam Howell, Luke Maye, Mitch Kupchak, Leaky Black, Phil Ford, Brice Johnson and Bobby Frasier. … UNC leads the all-time series with Duke 144–117, including 66–39 in Chapel Hill and 21–18 at the Smith Center. … The Tar Heels are 10–0 and 37–5 in three seasons at home.
No. 3 UNC 93, No. 7 Duke 84
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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