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DURHAM — No. 7 North Carolina was not in the mood to share, and graduate guard Cormac Ryan repeatedly shot down that possibility. Ryan scored a career-high 31 points, hitting four big free throws in the final 16.7 seconds, as the Tar Heels clinched the ACC regular-season title outright with an 84–79 victory Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The sensational seasons for two former UNC backcourt teammates continue as Caleb Love keeps matching or topping RJ Davis and vice versa. Meanwhile, Destiny Adams finished her first season at Rutgers with a record-breaking effort.
The pattern of blowout wins helping teams in the NET rankings didn’t hold for No. 7 North Carolina on Tuesday night as the Tar Heels set their sights on trying to win the ACC regular-season title outright.
CHAPEL HILL — At 8:46 p.m. on an emotional senior night, the Smith Center crowd roared one last time after Armando Linwood Bacot sank a 3-pointer for his last bucket in the arena. It came 1,581 days after he scored his first bucket on a short jumper 134 seconds into his career, also in a win against Notre Dame, and one day before he turns 24.
There is more agreement in bracket projections that No. 7 North Carolina will be the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Regional, but there are plenty of opportunities for the Tar Heels to change that in the next two weeks.
Carolina moved up two spots to No. 7 in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll after a pair of victories last week, with another top-10 clash with Duke ahead on Saturday.
Caleb Love had a memorable senior night at Arizona as the Wildcats won their final Pac-12 home game, and Puff Johnson scored a career-high 19 points in his first start in 11 games in a Penn State loss.
There wasn’t much good NET rankings news for No. 9 North Carolina two weeks away from Selection Sunday after Saturday’s Quad 3 home victory over N.C. State.
CHAPEL HILL — It was like No. 9 North Carolina flipped a defensive switch early in the second half. The Tar Heels gave up seven 3-pointers and 1.4 points per possession to N.C. State in the first half but forced the Wolfpack to come unglued offensively after halftime.
CHAPEL HILL — No. 17 North Carolina took morning batting practice on Friday, but it all counted. In a game that started at 11 a.m. to get ahead of the rain, the Tar Heels banged out 10 hits in an 11-run first inning when 16 UNC players batted. The rout quickly was on as Carolina rolled to a 12–2 victory over Princeton in the opener of a three-game series.
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