By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s worst defensive performance in years put the Tar Heels on the edge of disaster.
UNC eluded what would have been a rock-bottom loss, getting enough late stops and making some clutch plays late to pull out a 102–96 overtime win Saturday over Boston College at the Smith Center.
“I do believe that for the last 18.6 seconds [of regulation] and for overtime, we were locked in defensively,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “We got the stops that we needed, the deflections, the steals that we needed to be able to get us back in the game and eventually win it.”
Davis couldn’t explain why his team played so poorly on defense before that, taking lengthy pauses as he tried to come up with answers for a team he said had been improving defensively.
“Our approach defensively was not good,” said Davis, thankful that his team somehow defended well late. “But all the minutes leading up to that … just disappointed.”
RJ Davis, who led five double-figure UNC scorers with 22 points, hit two free throws to put the Tar Heels up by four with 53 seconds left in overtime. Then, Ven-Allen Lubin put the game away by blocking a Donald Hand Jr. shot 11 seconds later and then dunking at the other end.
The struggles that put UNC (13–8, 6–3 ACC) in danger of losing to BC (9–11, 1–8) — one of the league’s worst teams, with losses in its last six games — overshadowed the thrill of the finish.
Carolina found the needed passion in the final minutes, but Davis was dumbfounded about why it took so long.
“This group has always found it,” Coach Davis said before pausing. “I think they have found it when they have needed it, and it’s needed at the jump ball [to start the game], and that’s something that’s just going to have to change.”
The Eagles came into the game 15th in the ACC in 3-point shooting and averaging six per game but made a season-high 14, the most against UNC this season. BC often threw quick skip passes to the corner to create open chances and took advantage of late close-outs.
With Hand (26 points, five 3-pointers) and Dion Brown (20 points, four 3-pointers) on the outside and Chad Venning (17 points) on the inside, Boston College (9–11, 1–8) feasted on UNC mistakes.
BC exploited UNC double-teaming post players for numerous layups and many other easy shots. The Tar Heels overplayed ballhandlers other times to open up driving lanes.
“Our closeouts [have] got to be better. Our attention to detail has to be better,” said Coach Davis, adding that the rotations off of ball screens and the re-screens hurt his team. “I felt like our ball-screen defense was allowing them to get into the paint, which put a lot of pressure on us to protect the paint, which allowed them to throw the ball out and be able to shoot the ball from three.”
RJ Davis (22 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) led five Tar Heels to score in double figures but was just as disillusioned with how the game played out.
“I think it was communication,” RJ Davis said. “I think lack of effort and conscious energy plays that were needed that we didn’t execute well on. It’s all within our souls and in our heads. It’s really all mental that we were able to find our energy to finish up the game strong because obviously we had a lot of mental lapses. But we dug deep within our mindset, our mentality.”
In his first start since Dec. 29, Seth Trimble produced his second career double-double (both this season) with 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
“We were fortunate enough to put ourselves in the position to go into overtime,” Trimble said. “We just made a commitment to get that win. We were on the home court. We don’t like to lose. We definitely don’t like to lose in overtime. We made sure we did everything we needed to do just to lock in and get those stops.”
Ian Jackson and Trimble started together for the first time, and Lubin got his fifth start. Drake Powell and Jalen Washington started the second half along with Trimble.
“He’s so good defensively; he can rebound the basketball. I felt like that would be good for us to start the game with his leadership and experience,” Coach Davis said of Trimble. “In the second half, we weren’t playing any defense, and so just put five guys out there that I felt like could possibly get a stop. That was my thinking at starting the game, and that was my thinking [for] the lineup after halftime.”
Jackson sat out the last few minutes of the first half and didn’t start the second half, probably because, like most UNC players, he wasn’t playing good defense. But Jackson gave Carolina an offensive spark with 15 of his 19 points in the second half.
“[We have to] become more of a better group [defensively],” Jackson said. “We need to hold each other accountable a little bit more and play with a little bit more of a chip on our shoulder coming into games — not when we’re down or when we’re coming back, just at the start of the games.”
Coach Davis credited 5½ strong minutes from reserve center Ty Claude with energizing his team, saying he wouldn’t have taken him out if Claude wasn’t tired.
“His energy and his effort changed the entire game for us,” Coach Davis said. “We came in the huddle and everybody was screaming, saying, ‘See, it’s just one guy that’s playing hard. Look what it’s doing.’ He changed the game completely in that small time there.”
BC paraded to the free-throw line, going 7 of 8 during in the first 12 minutes, as the Tar Heels kept fouling outside shooters. A Washington bucket (to give him eight consecutive UNC points) started a 7–0 run to go up by nine, but BC quickly sliced it to four with a 7–2 run.
Two Fred Payne 3-pointers fueled in a 10–2 BC run to give the Eagles a four-point lead. UNC responded with 8–0 run to take a four-point lead on Powell’s thunderous driving one-handed dunk with 3:17 left in the first half. After a 7–2 BC run, a Cadeau free throw gave UNC a 46–45 halftime lead.
It took Carolina four minutes before Powell scored its first second-half field goal, a corner 3-pointer to tie it. But a Dion Brown 3 put BC up by five two minutes later.
Jackson scored nine points (including six consecutively) to ignite a 10–2 run to put UNC up by three on his 3-pointer with 10:13 left. After two Hand 3s put BC back up by three, another Jackson 3 after a Davis layup gave UNC a two-point lead.
An open Joshua Beadle corner 3 put BC up by four with 4:03 left before Jackson converted a three-point play on a transition layup. UNC went on a 7–3 run, tying it at 85 on two Washington free throws with 1:44 left in regulation.
After a Venning bucket put BC up by two, Powell turned it over on a bad pass at the other end, then Beadle’s basket with 26 seconds left gave BC a four-point lead. Trimble’s two free throws with 18.9 seconds left cut it to two.
UNC forced a five-second violation on the ensuing inbounds pass, then Trimble made a nice move to get an inside bucket with 12.9 seconds left to tie it at 89.
“We had turned the ball over and our mindset was, we were going to get this defensive stop,” RJ Davis said. “And Drake was phenomenal on the ball, made a huge impact, kind of just pressuring them until he got a deflection and the ball got out of bounds, but then forced them to a five-second call.”
In the final minutes, Powell was in for defense and Jackson for offense, and that combination worked well.
BC turned the ball over after its third inbound in the final seconds of regulation before a long Davis 3-point attempt rimmed out at the buzzer.
Cadeau’s driving layup 37 seconds into overtime gave UNC its first lead in more than eight minutes, and a Davis 3 with 3:14 left put the Heels up three, their biggest lead in 13 minutes.
The teams traded points before Trimble gave UNC a two-point lead on a drive with 1:42 left. After the Heels got a stop, Davis hit his two big free throws and Lubin made his two huge plays.
Washington tied his career-high with 18 points in a game he struggled mightily on defense and was fine after taking a hard fall and heading to the dressing room with the athletic trainer.
“Coming into the game, we knew that a lot of our middles put a lot of pressure on their defense, especially stuff dive action, because they had to either guard the hole or guard RJ from the three,” Washington said. “They hit me on those rolls and even on those kickouts to Ian in the corner. Just had to make the defense choose what they wanted to defend and give up.”
NOTES — Carolina begins the toughest stretch of its schedule, with three of the next four games Quad 1, starting with a 9 p.m. Tuesday game at Pittsburgh (13–6, 4–4), which snapped a four-game losing streak with a 77–73 Saturday win at Syracuse. … ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be in Durham on Saturday ahead of UNC’s game at Duke. … RJ Davis, Jackson, Trimble and Jae’Lyn Withers wore pink shoes. … UNC’s coaches wore custom shoes painted by UNC Children’s Hospital patients. … UNC scored a season-high 58 points in the lane (paint). … It was Trimble’s 13th start and Lubin’s fourth start (all that came consecutively, the last the Dec. 21 UCLA game). Powell was out of the starting lineup for the first time since the Nov. 27 Michigan State game, a stretch of 13 consecutive starts. … UNC shot a season-high 58.1% in the first half. … It was UNC’s second overtime game of the season after losing 94–91 to Michigan State on Nov. 27 at the Maui Invitational. … UNC has won six in a row against the Eagles and leads the series with BC 24–6, including 9–3 in the Smith Center and 6–0 under Coach Davis. … UNC is 8–2 at home and BC is 0–5 on the road. … UNC is 6–1 all-time when scoring at least 100 points in an overtime game against ACC opponents. … It was the first time UNC had scored 100 points in an overtime game against an ACC opponent since defeating Clemson 103–93 on Feb. 10, 2008. … Carolina is 1–1 this season in overtime games and 69–63 all-time. … Carolina is 11–10 in OT games in the Smith Center, winning for the first time since beating Syracuse on Feb. 28, 2022.
UNC 102, BC 96, OT
| Team | League | Overall | NET* |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 4 Duke | 10–1 | 21–2 | 3 |
| No. 20 Clemson | 10–1 | 20–4 | 30 |
| No. 15 Virginia | 9–2 | 20–3 | 17 |
| N.C. State | 9–3 | 18–7 | 29 |
| No. 11 North Carolina | 7–3 | 19–4 | 22 |
| Miami | 7–3 | 18–5 | 37 |
| No. 24 Louisville | 8–4 | 18–6 | 14 |
| SMU | 5–5 | 16–7 | 34 |
| California | 5–6 | 17–7 | 58 |
| Virginia Tech | 5–6 | 16–8 | 55 |
| Florida State | 4–6 | 11–12 | 95 |
| Stanford | 4–7 | 15–9 | 68 |
| Syracuse | 4–7 | 13–11 | 71 |
| Wake Forest | 2–8 | 11–12 | 67 |
| Boston College | 2–8 | 9–14 | 148 |
| Georgia Tech | 2–9 | 11–13 | 151 |
| Notre Dame | 2–9 | 11–13 | 89 |
| Pittsburgh | 2–9 | 9–15 | 123 |
* — Through Monday games
Saturday’s results
N.C. State 82, Virginia Tech 71
No. 15 Virginia 72, Syracuse 59
No. 24 Louisville 88, Wake Forest 80
Miami 74, Boston College 68
SMU 86, Pittsburgh 67
Florida State 82, Notre Dame 79
No. 11 North Carolina 71, No. 4 Duke 68
No. 20 Clemson 77, California 55
Stanford 95, Georgia Tech 72
Monday’s result
No. 24 Louisville 118, N.C. State 77
Tuesday’s games
No. 11 North Carolina at Miami, 7 p.m., ESPN
No. 15 Virginia at Florida State, 7 p.m., ESPNU
Notre Dame at SMU, 7 p.m., ACC Network
No. 4 Duke at Pittsburgh, 9 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday’s games
Virginia Tech at No. 20 Clemson, ACC Network
California at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ESPNU
Wake Forest at Georgia Tech, 9 p.m., ACC Network
Stanford at Boston College, 9 p.m., ESPNU
Saturday’s games
No. 20 Clemson at No. 4 Duke, noon, ESPN
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, noon, The CW
California at Boston College, noon, ACC Network
Pittsburgh at No. 11 North Carolina, 2 p.m., ESPN
Florida State at Virginia Tech, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at Syracuse, 2 p.m., The CW
No. 24 Louisville vs. Baylor in Fort Worth, Texas, 4 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
Stanford at Wake Forest, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Miami at N.C. State, 4 p.m., ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
No. 15 Virginia vs. Ohio State in Nashville, 8 p.m., Fox
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 22 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. 9 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. 10 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at No. 25 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 | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | W, 79–66 | vs. Florida State | 13–1, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | L, 97–83 | at SMU | 13–2, 1–1 |
| 10 | Saturday | W, 87–84 | vs. Wake Forest | 14–2, 2–1 |
| 14 | Wednesday | L, 95–90 | at Stanford | 14–3, 2–2 |
| 17 | Saturday | L, 84–78 | at California | 14–4, 2–3 |
| 21 | Wednesday | W, 91–69 | vs. Notre Dame | 15–4, 3–3 |
| 24 | Saturday | W, 85–80 | at No. 15 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 91–75 | at Georgia Tech | 17–4, 5–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 87–77 | vs. Syracuse | 18–4, 6–3 |
| 7 | Saturday | W, 71–68 | vs. No. 4 Duke | 19–4, 7–3 |
| 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. 24 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 20 Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 4 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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