By R.L. Bynum
LOS ANGELES — March sometimes produces unexpected outcomes and always leads to tears.
RJ Davis produced both Thursday night.
He led No. 5 North Carolina all season with All-American performances, but he could never find his shooting rhythm on an 0-for-9 night from 3-point range. He had just as much trouble finding words to describe his feelings after No. 19 Alabama ended the Tar Heels’ season with a stunning 89–87 win at Crypto.com Arena.
“I just wasn’t good enough today,” said Davis, who added that he hasn’t thought about whether he will come back for a fifth season after collecting 16 points and seven assists. “Missed a lot of easy shots I normally make.”
Meanwhile, Alabama’s Grant Nelson, a 27.5% 3-point shooter, scored 24 points and two huge 3-pointers to help the Tide (24–11) advance to Saturday’s regional final against Clemson.
It left a crushing finality for Armando Bacot that North Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder will never again wear a UNC uniform.
“I’m definitely hurt,” Bacot said. “I think we all are a little shocked. We don’t underestimate any opponent. All year, we play hard and today we played hard and they just made more shots than us. And it’s tough losing. It’s not easy losing, especially as talented as a team we are. We felt we had the chance to win the national championship this year.”
Both Bacot and Davis said that they had the most fun of their careers this season, even though it ended earlier than they wanted.
“I wouldn’t change anything that happened all year,” Bacot said. “It was a special year with teammates, coaches. It was just, for me personally, a restored sense of fun-ness. My love for the game just grew so much. My faith this year has grown a lot, and I’m going to miss everything about just being with this team, the coaches.”
After Michigan State ended Bacot’s double-double streak at seven, he notched one more (19 points and 17 rebounds) for his 19th this season and tie Tim Duncan’s ACC career record with 87.
While the team waited for Coach Hubert Davis to enter the locker room, nobody said anything and the team quietly processed what just happened.
Carolina (29–8) just couldn’t make enough plays in the final minutes.
“Always in the closing minutes, it comes down to a play here or there. I’ve talked all season about the little details that make big things happen, not just necessarily shots — rebounds, free throws, loose balls. At the end of the day, they made, down the stretch, more plays than us. And unfortunately, we came out on the short end.”
UNC used an 8–0 run to take a three-point lead after the fourth straight Davis free throw with 1:31 left in the game.
After Jae’lyn Withers missed a 3-point attempt, Alabama took a two-point lead on Nelson’s three-point play with 38.6 seconds left. Carolina couldn’t get a shot off at the other end, triggering a shot-clock violation with 8.6 seconds left.
Nelson hit free throws with seven seconds left and a Bacot layup cut it to two with 1.2 seconds left, but UNC could come no closer.
In the second half, graduate guard Paxson Wojcik played as many minutes as Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble combined, and hit a big 3-pointer.
“The way they were playing us defensively, they were laying off some of our guys, and Pax is somebody that has always been ready when his number is called and somebody that throughout his career has had an ability to be able to shoot the ball from the outside,” Coach Davis said, explaining the move.
“With them loading up on Armando in the post and loading up on RJ on any type of drives, and then them, I think, even staying more connected to Cormac after the first half that he had, putting in somebody that throughout his career is more proven from the outside would give Armando some more space, RJ more space to drive, and be able to move. And I thought Pax did a good job when he was in there,” Coach Davis said.
Ryan’s facial expressions and high-volume primal screams displayed his typical maximum intensity. That was typified when he clapped in Mark Sears’ face on one end after getting a stop in the first half and sunk a 3-pointer at the other end in a key late-first-half run.
The emotions for Ryan, who ended his career with 17 points and five 3-pointers, were different after the game as he defended RJ Davis from anybody who might criticize him after Thursday’s game.
“You could talk about RJ; you could talk about the stats,” Ryan said. “You could talk about whatever. We would not be in this position today without RJ Davis and Armando Bacot. Carolina wouldn’t be in this position today without these two guys. And so say what you want, there’s just not a true fiber in your being that could actually believe that anything that happened tonight could be the result of something RJ did wrong, because RJ’s done something incredible for this team. He’s done stuff that’s never been done before. He’s one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. And for anybody to come and say anything negative about RJ is unacceptable, and I’m just going to say that.”
Harrison Ingram added 12 points and two 3-pointers.
Cadeau made two of UNC’s first three buckets, one a 3-pointer that was part of a 17–5 run to give UNC a 10-point lead on a Bacot layup six minutes into the game. Cadeau had missed 12 3-point attempts in a row since hitting one March 2 against N.C. State.
Sears’ 3-pointer capped a 10–0 run as Alabama took a 3-point lead before another Cadeau 3-pointer tied it.
UNC finished the half with a 23–10 run that included three Ryan 3-pointers and two Ingram 3-pointers as Heels went from a five-point deficit with 5:11 left to a 54–46 lead. They scored 10 3-pointers, a season-high for a half.
Alabama took a two-point lead on a Sam Walters 3-pointer with 13:56 left the end of an 11–2 run as UNC’s defensive intensity waned.
But UNC responded with a 7–0 run, and Wojcik’s 3-pointer with 9:12 left gave UNC a five-point lead. That came after Coach Davis yelled at him two possessions earlier to shoot it.
Aaron Estrada’s 3-pointer at the end of a 7–3 Alabama run tied it with 5:26 left. Nelson scored eight consecutive points, and his 3-pointer with 3:46 left gave the Tide a five-point lead. UNC rallied, then Alabama went on a game-ending 9–2 run.
Rylan Griffen and Estrada added 19 points for Alabama and Sears scored 18.
NOTES — It was UNC’s second Sweet 16 loss as a No. 1 seed, the other coming in Kansas City against Auburn in 2019. … On the same floor, former teammates Davis and Caleb Love became the first pair of players to go 0 of 9 from 3-point range in the NCAA tournament on the same night. Love scored 13 points in Arizona’s 77–72 loss to Clemson. … The 87 points tied the most points scored by UNC in an NCAA tournament loss in school history (also scored 87 points in a 92–87 loss to Michigan in the 1989 Sweet 16). … UNC shot 25% in the second half, its worst performance in a half in an NCAA tournament game since shooting 22.6% in the second half against Kansas in the 2012 Elite Eight. It tiesd the third-lowest shooting percentage in an NCAA tournament half in UNC history. … Carolina tied its season-high with 12 3-pointers, which it also had against Northern Iowa on Nov. 22, Tennessee on Nov. 29 and at Syracuse on Feb. 13. … The 54 first-half points were the most since UNC’s 105–60 Dec. 29 victory over Charleston Southern. … It was the second game with multiple 3-pointers game for Cadeau and Trimble. Cadeau’s other one came Feb. 26 against Miami and Trimble’s Nov. 24 against Arkansas. … Alabama’s Latrell Wrightsell Jr. missed the game after suffering a concussion in the Tide’s second-round victory over Grand Canyon. … Carolina is 8–6 against Alabama, has lost two in a row and is 2–2 against the Tide in NCAA tournament games. … UNC is 7–2 in NCAA tournament play under Coach Davis. … Carolina is 16–9 in California, including 5–7 in Los Angeles and 0–2 in what now is called Crypto.com Arena (the Heels also lost 79–72 in the 2015 West Regional Sweet 16).
Alabama 89, UNC 87
South Regional
Tuesday’s First Four results
No. 16 Alabama St. 70, No. 16 St. Francis 68
No. 11 North Carolina 95, No. 11 San Diego State 68
First round
Thursday’s results
Lexington, Ky.
No. 1 Auburn 83, No. 16 Alabama State 63
No. 9 Creighton 89, No. 8 Louisville 75
Denver
No. 4 Texas A&M 80, No. 13 Yale 71
No. 5 Michigan 68, No. 12 UC San Diego 65
Friday’s games
Milwaukee
No. 3 Iowa St. 82, No. 14 Lipscomb 55
No. 8 Ole Miss 71, No. 11 North Carolina 64
Cleveland
No. 10 New Mexico 75, No. 7 Marquette 55
No. 2 Michigan St. 87, No. 15 Bryant 62
Second round
Saturday’s results
Lexington, Ky.
No. 5 Michigan 91, No. 4 Texas A&M 79
No. 1 Auburn 81,. No. 9 Creighton 70
Sunday’s results
Milwaukee
No. 8 Ole Miss 91, No. 3 Iowa State 78
Cleveland
No. 2 Michigan St. 71, No. 10 New Mexico 63
Regional semifinals
Atlanta
Friday’s games
No. 8 Ole Miss (24-11) vs. No. 2 Michigan St. (29–6), 7:09, CBS
No. 5 Michigan (27-9) vs. No. 1 Auburn (20–5), 9:39, CBS
Sunday’s regional final
Atlanta
Sweet 16 winners
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 17 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 9 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | 8 p.m. | vs. East Carolina | ACCN |
| 30 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Florida State | ESPN2 |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | 2:15 | at SMU | The CW |
| 10 | Saturday | 6 p.m. | vs. Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 14 | Wednesday | 9 p.m. | at Stanford | ACCN |
| 17 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | at California | ACCN |
| 21 | Wednesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Notre Dame | ESPN2 |
| 24 | Saturday | 2 or 2:30 | at No. 23 Virginia | ESPN or ESPNU |
| 31 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | at Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. Syracuse | ESPN |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 3 Duke | ESPN |
| 10 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at Miami | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 14 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Pittsburgh | ESPN |
| 17 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at N.C. State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 21 | Saturday | 1 p.m. | at Syracuse | ABC |
| 23 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 11 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 3 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
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