By R.L. Bynum
LAHAINA, Hawai’i — Carolina basketball history wouldn’t have happened without the stern message Coach Hubert Davis delivered to his team at the first TV timeout of the second half.
The No. 12 Tar Heels had only cut an 18-point deficit by one point, and Davis saw many reasons. All of them were frustrating.
“I told them they’re not making comeback plays,” Davis said. ” ‘You’re just not getting the rebounds, you’re not getting defensive stops, you’re not getting through screens, you’re not getting loose balls, you’re not taking the ball strong to the hoop. You’re not dunking when you get around the basket; just not making those plays.’ And I said, ‘If you would change that, this game would flip.’ “
Flip it did.
The Tar Heels’ rally from a 21-point second-half deficit tied the school record, and was the second-largest overall comeback in program history, fighting back to knock off Dayton 92–90 in the first round of the Maui Invitational at a Lahaina Civic Center packed with loud Tar Heels fans.
UNC (4–1) next faces No. 4 Auburn (5–0), which rallied from 18 points down to beat No. 5 Iowa State 83–81, in a semifinal matchup at 6 p.m. ET (ESPN).
The coach wasn’t the only Davis with a message for the Tar Heels. There were also some “explicit words” from fifth-year guard RJ Davis, who scored 20 of his season-high 30 points in the second half, with a season-high four 3-pointers and seven rebounds.
“That was in a way of just trying to get everybody to compete harder because they were kicking our butts on both ends of the floor and out-hustling us and out-toughing us,” RJ Davis said. “We didn’t allow that in the second half.”
The Tar Heels couldn’t have pulled it off without the heart of RJ Davis and Seth Trimble and the contribution of freshman Drake Powell, who was outstanding on defense and scored a massive 3-pointer with 1:13 remaining.
After Davis got whistled for a charging call with 27.8 seconds left, he made up for it by rebounding a 3-point miss from Nate Santos at the other end and hitting two free throws with 14 seconds left to put UNC up 3. Santos hit a corner shot at the other end with six seconds left, but it was ruled a 2-pointer because the tip of Santos’ right foot was on the line.
After a pair of Davis free throws, one last Trimble rebound sealed the deal, when he snagged Malachi Smith’s intentional miss of his second free throw in the final second.
Trimble was a beast under the boards when UNC had to get a second shot, finishing with 27 points and 10 rebounds, both career-highs.
“We really bet on ourselves that we weren’t going to let this be like Kansas. We weren’t going to let it end up like Kansas,” said Trimble, who became the first Tar Heel with at least 25 points and 10 rebounds since Cole Anthony’s Carolina debut in 2019 against Notre Dame.
With another bad start, Carolina was playing with fire again, and Hubert Davis said it wasn’t sustainable.
“That’s going to be one of the major steps with this team, is: Can they play with a sense of urgency on both ends of the floor? Can they start there, and can they stay there for 40 minutes?” Coach Davis said.
Dayton (5–1) made 14 of 32 3-point attempts and scored 3s many times when it needed a basket. But the Tar Heels’ ball pressure held the Flyers to 6 of 24 on two-point tries in the second half, and Powell was a big reason why.
“He’s elite defensively, on and off the ball, and I thought his length, athleticism and pressure on the ball when we were switching caused them problems, and then also his ability to rebound the basketball,” Coach Davis said of Powell, who had six points, four rebounds and two steals. “I thought he stepped up when he got into the game, and then to be able to have the confidence to be able to knock down that 3 in the corner, to put us up one was huge.”
Carolina got 72% of its points (67 of its 92 points) from three guards — Davis, Trimble and Elliot Cadeau — who battled foul trouble and could have been out of the game with one whistle on a night with many strange officiating calls.
“We’ve got to be maybe a little bit more timid on the defensive end, but it kind of allows us to play smarter,” Trimble said of playing with foul trouble. “You can’t play as aggressive. You kind of want to play more aggressive coming back when you’re down 21 but we’re able to do it.”
Carolina came into the game leading the nation with only 7.8 turnovers per game but committed eight in the first 7½ minutes. The Tar Heels set a season-high on their 11th with 3:53 left in the first half and had 12 in the first half (and only nine field goals) that led to 19 Dayton points. UNC cleaned that up with only three second-half turnovers.
Cadeau (10 points, five assists and three rebounds) had a rough start in terms of getting all six of his turnovers in the first half (after committing seven in the first four games) and having physical play inflicted on him, particularly on two plays.
He was slow to get up after 6–8 Zed Key knocked him down in the first 2½ minutes, and Malachi Smith clotheslined him across the top of his chest with his left arm near halfcourt five minutes later.
Cadeau blocked a Smith layup attempt at one end, and Trimble hit the first of two consecutive 3-point attempts to give UNC a 12–8 lead with 15:42 left. Dayton responded with a 9–4 run to take a one-point lead into the second TV timeout.
UNC missed six consecutive shots during a 14–2 run that included four 3-pointers and gave Dayton a 34–22 lead with 6:30 left in the first half. After the Flyers’ lead hit 14, RJ Davis, who had been sitting for 2½ minutes with two fouls, returned to convert a three-point play.
But the Flyers kept coming, ending the first half with a 10–3 run and an 18-point lead, 51–33, UNC’s largest deficit after 20 minutes since being down 22 to Wake Forest on Feb. 7, 2023. It was the fourth time a Hubert Davis team has given up at least 50 first-half points.
Carolina came out with more energy after halftime, but missed layup attempts allowed it to cut only one point off the deficit in the first four minutes. It didn’t help that Cadeau picked up his fourth foul during that stretch.
A RJ Davis 3-pointer and a Trimble transition layup capped a 25–10 run to chop UNC’s deficit to six with 9:20 left. Trimble’s spin move on a three-point play after hauling down a rebound and a Davis drive cut it to three 2½ minutes later.
After Dayton pushed its lead back to seven, Jalen Washington scored five points during a 12–6 run to again pull within one on a pair of Davis free throws. After the teams traded 3s, a corner Powell 3 off a Davis pass gave UNC a one-point lead with 1:14 remaining. It was UNC’s first lead since 13:06 remained in the first half.
Santos led six Flyers to score in double figures with 15 points. Two starters (Key, who had 10 points) and (Javon Bennett, who had nine) both fouled out.
NOTES — UNC trailed by 21 points with 17:36 to play before outscoring the Flyers 57–34 after that. …. It is the largest second-half comeback since trailing Florida State by 21 on Jan. 27, 1993. … The largest comeback in UNC history was 22 against Wake Forest on Feb. 8, 1992 (trailed by 22 in the first half). … It is the first time UNC came back to win when trailing by at least 20 since Feb. 15, 2006, when Georgia Tech led 50-30 but UNC came back for an 82-75 win. … UNC tied the series at 2 wins each with its first victory over Dayton since a 76–62 victory in the 1967 national semifinal in Louisville. … Carolina is 36–5 in Hawai’i, including 19–3 in Lahaina and 9–0 in quarterfinal games. … Carolina has made the Maui semifinals for the ninth time in nine tries. … UNC fell two spots in Monday’s AP Top 25, leapfrogged by Tennessee and Marquette. … UNC leads the series with Auburn 3–1, with the only loss coming 97–80 in the 2019 Midwest Regional semifinals in Kansas City when the Heels were No. 3 and the Tigers No. 14.
No. 12 UNC 92, Dayton 90
Maui Invitational
Lahaina Civic Center | Lahiana, Hawaii
All times ET
Monday’s first round results
Memphis 99, No. 2 UConn 97, OT
Michigan State 72, Colorado 56
No. 4 Auburn 83, No. 5 Iowa State 81
No. 12 UNC 92, Dayton 90
Tuesday’s games
Semifinals
Memphis (5–0) vs. Michigan State (5–1), 6 p.m., ESPN
No. 4 Auburn (5–0) vs. No. 12 UNC (4–1), 11:30, ESPN2
Consolation bracket
UConn (4–1) vs. Colorado (4–1), 3:30, ESPN2
No. 5 Iowa State (3–1) vs. Dayton (5–1), 8:30, ESPNU
Wednesday’s games
Championship, 5 p.m., ESPN
Third-place game, 9:30, ESPN2
Fifth-place game, 2:30, ESPN2
Seventh-place game, midnight, ESPN2
| Date | Month/day | Time/ score | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 15 | Tuesday | W, 84–76 | at Memphis | Exhibition |
| 27 | Sunday | W, 127–63 | vs. Johnson C. Smith | Exhibition |
| November | ||||
| 4 | Monday | W, 90–76 | vs. Elon | 1–0 |
| 8 | Friday | L, 92–89 | at No. 1 Kansas | 1–1 |
| 15 | Friday | W, 107–55 | vs. American | 2–1 |
| 22 | Friday | W, 85–69 | at Hawai’i | 3–1 |
| Maui Invitational | ||||
| 25 | Monday | W, 92–90 | Dayton | 4–1 |
| 26 | Tuesday | 11 ET | No. 4 Auburn | ESPN or ESPNU |
| 27 | Wednesday | 2:30 ET, 5 p.m., 9:30 or midnight | Memphis, No. 2 UConn, Colorado or Michigan State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 4 | Wednesday | 7:15 | vs. No. 9 Alabama | ESPN |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| 14 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | vs. LaSalle | The CW |
| Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte | ||||
| 17 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | Florida | ESPN |
| CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden | ||||
| 21 | Saturday | 3 p.m. | UCLA | CBS |
| ————————— | ||||
| 29 | Sunday | 8 p.m. | vs. Campbell | ACCN |
| January | ||||
| 1 | Wednesday | TBA | at Louisville | ACCN |
| 4 | Saturday | Noon | at Notre Dame | CBS |
| 7 | Tuesday | 9 p.m. | vs. SMU | ACCN |
| 11 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | at N.C. State | ACCN |
| 15 | Wednesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Cal | ACCN |
| 18 | Saturday | 2:15 | vs. Stanford | The CW |
| 21 | Tuesday | 9 p.m. | at Wake Forest | ESPN |
| 25 | Saturday | 2:15 p.m. | vs. Boston College | The W |
| 28 | Tuesday | 9 p.m. | at Pittsburgh | ESPN |
| February | ||||
| 1 | Saturday | 6:30 p.m. | at No. 11 Duke | ESPN |
| 8 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | vs. Pittsburgh | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 10 | Monday | 7 p.m. | at Clemson | ESPN |
| 15 | Saturday | 6 p.m. | at Syracuse | ESPN |
| 19 | Wednesday | 7 p.m. | vs. N.C. State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 22 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | vs. Virginia | ESPN |
| 24 | Monday | 7 p.m. | at Florida State | ESPN |
| March | ||||
| 1 | Saturday | Noon | vs. Miami | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 4 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at Virginia Tech | ESPN, ESPN2 orESPNU |
| 8 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 11 Duke | ESPN |
| 11– 15 | Tues.–Sat. | ACC tournament Spectum Center, Charlotte |
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
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