UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Couldn’t Hit Enough Shots to Hold Off Duke

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

In their final game of the regular season, the North Carolina basketball team faced off against their rival Duke on Saturday night. It was an intense back and forth game between the two rivals in the first half. Both teams shot under 30% percent from the field, but the teams went to the free throw very often as it was a very physical game. North Carolina found success when they got downhill and attempted shots in the paint, but was unable to make their outside shots, which allowed Duke to pack the paint. Bad shot selection and lack of ball movement from the Heels allowed the Blue Devils to take the lead late and go into halftime up by 2.  

In the second half, North Carolina missed their first six shots, while Duke was finding their rhythm offensively and extended their lead to 7. The Heels’ offense was stagnant, and the poor shot selection allowed Duke to get out in transition for easy baskets. However, Carolina didn’t give up and climbed back into the game when they started to get downhill and got the ball inside to Armando Bacot. With about 9 minutes left in the game, RJ Davis and Pete Nance made back-to-back threes and the Tar Heels took a 4-point lead.

Duke was resilient and kept the game close, not allowing UNC to go on a huge run. Down the stretch, both teams traded baskets as the game went down to the wire. The difference in the game was North Carolina making more mistakes at the end with unforced turnovers and bad shot selection. UNC was bad offensively all night long shooting only 31% from the field and their poor shooting along with poor decision-making cost them the game late.  Duke made more plays in the end and pulled out a 62-57 victory over the Tar Heels.  

UNC Game Stats

	1	2	T
Duke 23-8	33	29	62
North Carolina 19-12	31	26	57

North Carolina

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO
A. Bacot	17	11	0	4/8	0/0	9/10	3	31	1	4	3
L. Black	9	8	0	3/16	1/7	2/2	2	40	0	0	1
P. Nance	3	4	1	1/4	1/3	0/0	4	24	0	1	1
J. Watkins	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0	0	0
J. McKoy	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	2	0	0	0
BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO
R. Davis	17	6	3	6/13	3/5	2/2	2	38	2	0	1
C. Love	11	6	3	3/12	0/6	5/7	2	34	1	0	1
D. Styles	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	1	7	0	1	0
D. Dunn	0	1	1	0/2	0/2	0/0	0	5	0	0	0
S. Trimble	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0	0	1
T. Nickel	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	4	0	0	0
J. Washington	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	1	1	0	0	0
P. Johnson	0	2	0	0/1	0/0	0/0	1	12	0	0	0
Total	57	38	8	17/56	5/23	18/21	16	–	4	6	8

Duke

STARTERS	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO
K. Filipowski	22	13	1	7/17	1/4	7/8	2	35	1	1	3
T. Proctor	13	2	3	4/10	0/1	5/7	1	32	0	0	1
M. Mitchell	10	4	0	4/8	1/1	1/2	0	38	1	0	0
J. Roach	10	2	0	4/16	2/6	0/0	1	37	3	0	2
D. Lively II	2	6	0	1/1	0/0	0/0	4	17	0	3	1
BENCH	PTS	REB	AST	FG	3PT	FT	PF	MIN	STL	BLK	TO
D. Whitehead	3	4	0	1/3	0/1	1/1	4	15	0	0	1
R. Young	2	6	0	1/2	0/0	0/0	3	19	1	0	0
J. Grandison	0	0	0	0/1	0/0	0/0	0	7	0	0	0
Total	62	37	4	22/58	4/13	14/18	15	–	6	4	8

UNC Bright Spots 

Armando Bacot had 17 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 steal. 

RJ Davis had 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. 

Caleb Love had 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal. 

Needs Work 

The North Carolina guards must be better down the stretch in games. Late in games, they make too many poor decisions. They fail to get the team into sets that will get them quality shots and settle for contested shots. 

The Tar Heels’ shot selection and decision-making need to be much better. When they settle for jump shots and are not hitting, it allows the other team to get out and run in transition for easy baskets. 

The Tar Heels need to be more aggressive defensively. They allow the opponent to dictate the pace and don’t disrupt the opponent’s rhythm enough. 

The coaching staff needs to be better with in-game adjustments. They fail to make subs at the right time and change the team’s defense when the other team is playing well offensively. 

Final Observations 

The Tar Heels fall to 19-12 on the season and 11-9 in ACC play. This season has been a complete disappointment for this North Carolina basketball team. After all the lofty expectations coming into this season, they underperformed all season long and never even had a game where everyone played a good game. This team never quite developed their team chemistry to a level where they could become an elite team. Pete Nance, although a good player, wasn’t the right fit in the starting lineup with Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Leaky Black, and Armando Bacot.  

The coaching staff failed all season long to make in-game adjustments and to have a solid bench rotation.  The guards not taking a step forward in their games this season and the lack of bench play were the biggest problems for the Tar Heels. These developments showed up on the floor often. Although this team was full of veterans and battle-tested, they never learned how to close out games.

They had so many winnable games but crumbled under the pressure down the stretch of those games. Now after coming into the season with national championship aspirations, this UNC squad might not even make the NCAA tournament, which is totally unacceptable. No one expected this outcome for this Tar Heels team. It may arguably be the worst performance from a team with such high expectations in the history of UNC basketball. The Heels have one last shot to right their season if they can win 4 games in a row and win the ACC championship, but it will be a difficult task for them because of the inconsistency shown by this team all season long. Next up is the ACC tournament on Wednesday, March 8th.