By R.L. Bynum
CHARLOTTE — With its season unraveling in a blowout, North Carolina made a furious rally to show that the Tar Heels aren’t dead yet.
UNC scored eight 3-pointers in the last 12 minutes to slice an 18-point deficit down to one before falling to Clemson 80–79 Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at the Spectrum Center.
UNC coach Hubert Davis said the rally showed the urgency the Tar Heels have discussed internally.
“Specifically, I talked to the team Tuesday, Wednesday and today about having that hunger and that thirst,” Davis said. “That hunger and that thirst to compete, that hunger and thirst to prepare, to practice, hunger and thirst to play together as a team and as a group as long as we can.”
After Clemson’s Dillon Hunter hit pairs of free throws with 20.2 seconds and 11.1 seconds left, UNC responded with a Henri Veesaar 3 with 12.2 seconds left and a Derek Dixon 3 with three seconds left, the latter cutting the deficit to one.
With no timeouts left, UNC could only muster a desperation three-quarter-court shot from Jarin Stevenson after Nick Davidson missed two free throws with 2.7 seconds left.
To overcome Clemson (24–9), the Tar Heels (24–8) needed a good night from the perimeter, as in the first meeting, but that didn’t happen until late.
With no flow to its sloppy offense and consistent mistakes on defense, UNC looked to be in its poorest stretch since the loss at N.C. State and lacked energy. When they finally got it all together, it wasn’t enough.
Davis said Clemson’s defensive approach disrupted UNC for much of the night.
“Clemson has always been physical defensively, and one of the things I always say is you never let a defense dictate and decide how efficient you are on the offensive end,” Davis said. “I felt like their physicality took us out of our offense, took us off of our cuts, our screens, our moves, and we didn’t really respond to that until the latter part of the second half.”
Despite facing double-teams, Veesaar carried UNC with career highs of 28 points and 17 rebounds for his 14th double-double, though he also had six of the Tar Heels’ 10 turnovers.
Veesaar said his role hasn’t changed with the Tar Heels having to move on without Caleb Wilson available.
“I think there’s just more opportunity,” Veesaar said. “Because obviously Caleb is an amazing player and we miss him, but I’ll say that I just have gotten more opportunities.”
Veesaar repeatedly attacked the paint and drew fouls as UNC tried to climb back into the game.
“I think a big part of it was just we were trying to have an emphasis on trying to go inside, trying to do what Coach told me to do,” Veesaar said. “Trying to get to the basket, trying to draw fouls, trying to make contact first, being physical, trying to get to the rim.”
Apart from Veesaar, Stevenson (12 points, 7 rebounds) and Seth Trimble (13 points), there wasn’t much of a scoring threat from the rest of the team until Dixon scored 11 of his 16 points in the final 3:33.
After Luka Bogavac made a big difference in the first meeting with 20 points and six 3-pointers, he only contributed five points and was 1 of 4 on 3-point attempts.UNC finished 11 of 30 from 3-point range.
There was little success from UNC’s pick-and-roll, and Clemson’s defense kept the Tar Heels out of their rhythm all night until the final run.
Davidson led six Clemson players scoring in double figures with 17 points and four 3-pointers.
Davis pointed to defensive struggles as another key factor in the loss.
“When you allow a team to shoot 50 percent from the field, especially this time of the year against good teams, that’s just not a recipe for success,” Davis said.
After Clemson took an early three-point lead, UNC went on an 11–2 run to take a six-point edge, 14–8, on a short Veesaar baseline fadeaway jumper 5½ minutes into the game. Clemson responded with a 23–8 run to take a nine-point lead, 31–22, on a Dillon Hunter jumper.
A Stevenson jumper with 4:39 left in the first half was UNC’s first field goal in nearly five minutes and only second in nearly nine minutes in a stretch when it made 3 of 14 shots. That was the first of seven straight UNC points, with his 3-pointer cutting the deficit to two, 31–29, with 2:01 left in the first half.
Clemson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the last two minutes and led 39–31 at halftime, expanding the lead to 12 in the first four minutes of the second half. An 11–2 Clemson run pushed the lead to 18 on a Nick Davidson 3-pointer with 11½ minutes left.
Davis called a timeout after a Veesaar 3-pointer with 7:16 cut the deficit to 12. UNC didn’t dip much into that lead until a 19–7 run cut the deficit to three. Two Dixon 3-pointers, a Veesaar 3 and a Trimble drive made it 76–73 with 23 seconds left.
“We were just playing as a team, just trying to be aggressive,” Veesaar said. “We dug ourselves in a big hole.”
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Notes
— Veesaar is the first player with at least 25 points and 15 rebounds in an ACC tournament game since March 8, 2018 (Duke’s Marvin Bagley III vs. Notre Dame; 33 points, 17 rebounds).
— UNC has lost consecutive games for the first time since losing at Stanford and at Cal in mid-January.
— Clemson became the 10th team in ACC tournament history to have six players score in double figures in a game.
— The Tigers had a 29–5 advantage in bench points.
— Clemson was without junior center Carter Welling, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in Wednesday’s victory over Wake Forest.
— It was only UNC’s second ACC tournament loss to Clemson, the other coming 75–73 in the 1996 quarterfinals in Greensboro.
— UNC is 34–5 at neutral sites against Clemson, including 17–3 in Charlotte and 15–2 in the ACC tournament, and leads the all-time series 137–26.
— The Tar Heels are 110–54 in the ACC tournament, including 50–15 in the quarterfinals.
Clemson 80, No. 19 UNC 79
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 15 Pittsburgh 64, No. 10 Stanford 63
No. 11 SMU 86, No. 14 Syracuse 69
No. 13 Wake Forest 95, No. 12 Virginia Tech 89, OT
Wednesday’s second round
No. 7 N.C. State 98, Pittsburgh 88
No. 6 (No. 24 ranked) Louisville 62, SMU 58
No. 8 Florida State 95, No. 9 California 89
No. 5 Clemson 71, Wake Forest 62
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 2 (No. 10 ranked) Virginia 81, N.C. State 74
No. 3 Miami 78, Louisville 73
No. 1 (No. 1 ranked) Duke 80, Florida State 79
Clemson 80, No. 4 (No. 19 ranked) North Carolina 79
Friday’s semifinals
Virginia 84, Miami 62
Duke 73, Clemson 61
Saturday’s championship
Duke 74, Virginia 70
| Date | Month/day | Scores | Opponent/event (current ranks) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. 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. 11 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 | 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. 9 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. 1 Duke | 19–4, 7–3 |
| 10 | Tuesday | L, 75–66 | at No. 25 Miami | 19–5, 7–4 |
| 14 | Saturday | W, 79–65 | vs. Pittsburgh | 20–5, 8–4 |
| 17 | Tuesday | L, 82–58 | at N.C. State | 20–6, 8–5 |
| 21 | Saturday | W, 77–64 | at Syracuse | 21–6, 9–5 |
| 23 | Monday | W, 77–74 | vs. Louisville | 22–6, 10–5 |
| 28 | Saturday | W, 89–82 | vs. Virginia Tech | 23–6, 11–5 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | W, 67–63 | vs. Clemson | 24–6, 12–5 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 76–61 | at No. 1 Duke | 24–7, 12–6 |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte | |
| 12 | Thursday | L, 80–79 | Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson | 24–8 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 19 | Thursday | L, 82–78, OT | First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C. | 24–9 |
Photo courtesy of the ACC
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