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CHAPEL HILL — That vexing pattern of No. 20 North Carolina building a big lead and giving most of it up nearly burned the Tar Heels on Thursday night. But Deja Kelly made four free throws in the final 15.7 seconds after UNC blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead before holding on for a 66–61 win at Carmichael Arena. But not before Miami sank five of its 12 3-pointers in the final quarter, and former Duke player Shayeann Day-Wilson led a fierce rally.
CHAPEL HILL — Playing in a baseball conference stacked with ranked teams requires stacking talent to stay competitive, and fourth-year North Carolina coach Scott Forbes brought in an impressive collection of newcomers to do that.
With a new quarterback and a new defensive coordinator, North Carolina will have four non-conference games to settle in next season before getting into league play with a game at Duke in the new 17-team ACC as the league announced the schedule Wednesday.
Carolina five-star recruits Ian Jackson and Drake Powell were named Tuesday to the McDonald’s All-American Game.
CHAPEL HILL — While RJ Davis’ 36 points were the most impressive part of No. 3 North Carolina’s 85–64 victory Monday over Wake Forest, the trend of solid defense and rebounding continues to be a big reason for the nine-game winning streak.
Predicting what a victory will do for No. 3 North Carolina’s NET ranking isn’t always easy. But one-sided wins have pushed the Tar Heels higher before, even a 45-point Quad 4 win over Charleston Southern earlier this season. That happened after UNC’s impressive 85–64 victory over Wake Forest on Monday night.
It was a huge night in the NBA for Harrison Barnes, Coby White and Leaky Black. Barnes and the Sacramento Kings shook off recent struggles, White came an assist shy of a triple-double in his best game of the season and Black made huge plays in the final seconds of Charlotte’s victory.
CHAPEL HILL — RJ Davis wouldn’t let No. 3 North Carolina go down against Wake Forest. The senior guard scored 23 of his career-high 36 points in the second half as the Tar Heels went from trailing by one at halftime to blowing out the Demon Deacons 85–64 Monday night at the Smith Center for their ninth consecutive victory.
The sixth season of Coach Mack Brown’s second stint as North Carolina’s coach will begin on the road with a game on Thursday night, Aug. 29, against Minnesota. That matchup was previously announced and is part of the ACC’s Week 1 schedule that the league announced Monday on ACC Network.
North Carolina moved up one spot to No. 3 in the latest Top 25 men’s basketball poll, the Tar Heels’ highest January rank since the 2016 Final Four team was No. 2 in the last two polls that month.
With a share of the ACC lead, North Carolina also is moving up in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll. The Tar Heels (14–5, 6–1 ACC) jumped three spots to No. 20 in the poll released Monday afternoon.
Kennedy Todd-Williams’ first season at Ole Miss hasn’t always gone smoothly, but she put it all together Sunday. Nearly a year after she scored a career-high 22 points for Carolina in a win at Pittsburgh, Todd-Williams matched that in the Rebels’ 69–59 road win over Georgia.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina sent a loud message Sunday that it’s one of the best women’s teams in the ACC and better than its No. 23 ranking. Deja Kelly sent the Tar Heels into overdrive with nine of her game-high 23 points in the third quarter, when they took control with a 9–0 run, ending No. 13 Louisville’s six-game losing streak Sunday in a physical 79–68 win before 6,073 fans at Carmichael Arena.
No. 4 North Carolina’s third Quad 2 victory of the season was enough to move the Tar Heels up two spots to 7 in Sunday’s updated NET rankings.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — No. 4 North Carolina again made an opponent pay for putting the Tar Heels on the free throw line. UNC didn’t shoot that well from the floor in the second half but made 14 of 15 free-throw attempts after halftime, as the Heels extended their win streak to eight with a workman-like 76–66 victory Saturday over Boston College at Conte Forum.
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