UNC Basketball Moments After – UNC vs. Miami 75-72 Win
UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Holds Off the Pesky Miami Hurricanes in a Bounce Back Road Win
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina basketball team looked to bounce back against Miami on Saturday afternoon after a subpar performance against Clemson Monday night. The Tar Heels jumped on the Miami Hurricanes early and got out to a 15-4 lead to start the game. Carolina hit 8 of their first 13 shots and got practically whatever they wanted offensively. The Heels also came out with a lot of intensity defensively and were forcing Miami into tough shots possession after possession, making the Hurricanes work for everything they got. UNC led by as much as 12 in the first half and for most of the half had a comfortable 8 to12 point lead.
RJ Davis was excellent in the first half and had 16 points as the Hurricanes couldn’t do anything with him. However, late in the first half, the Tar Heels relaxed on both sides of the floor. Defensively, UNC became lazy and unfocused and allowed Miami to get into a rhythm. Offensively, the Heels got stagnant and took poor shots for an extended stretch, missing 14 of their last 17 shots going into halftime. These mistakes by the Tar Heels would allow Miami to get back into the game and even take a one-point lead going into intermission.
In the second half, Miami and UNC would trade baskets in the first couple of minutes before the Tar Heels would go on a 14-3 run to open the game up. During this run, the Heels were able to get out in transition for easy baskets and made a concerted effort to move the ball to the open man for quality shots every time down the floor. North Carolina also locked back in defensively and got the ball out of Miami’s two best players, Norchad Omier and Nijel Pack’s hands, forcing the other players on the court to make difficult shots.
UNC freshman guard Elliott Cadeau was huge for the Tar Heels in this game and was the most aggressive he’s been offensively scoring the ball this season, leading to his career high in points with 19. The Heels extended their lead to as much as 12 in the second half, but Miami would not go away. The Tar Heels struggled to take care of the ball all game long and had unforced and careless turnovers that allowed Miami to score in transition. The turnovers were costly for Carolina in the second half, and they even finished with more turnovers than assists.
Down the stretch of the game, Carolina made some critical errors with turnovers, bad shots, playing undisciplined defense which led to fouls, and the allowance of offensive rebounds by Miami. The Hurricanes took full advantage of the Tar Heels’ miscues and cut the lead down to 2 with about one minute left in the game. The game would come down to free throws and defense for the Tar Heels. In the last few seconds of the game, UNC got some timely stops and Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan would seal the game with free throws. RJ Davis led the Heels in scoring with 25 as the Tar Heels would secure their 75-72 win over the Hurricanes.
UNC Game Stats
| 1 | 2 | T | |
| 3 North Carolina 19-5 | 40 | 35 | 75 |
| Miami (Fla.) 15-9 | 41 | 31 | 72 |
| STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| R. Davis | 25 | 7 | 5 | 6/19 | 5/11 | 8/8 | 2 | 39 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| E. Cadeau | 19 | 3 | 8 | 7/14 | 2/6 | 3/4 | 1 | 35 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| H. Ingram | 13 | 5 | 0 | 4/7 | 2/5 | 3/7 | 3 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| A. Bacot | 10 | 15 | 0 | 5/8 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 5 | 37 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| C. Ryan | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2/6 | 2/5 | 1/2 | 4 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| Z. High | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0/2 | 0/1 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Washington | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Withers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| P. Wojcik | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0/2 | 0/2 | 0/0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Farris | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Okonkwo | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| R. Landry | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| S. Trimble | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Lebo | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 75 | 37 | 15 | 24/59 | 11/31 | 16/24 | 19 | – | 8 | 5 | 15 |
| STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| N. Pack | 20 | 1 | 3 | 8/17 | 4/8 | 0/1 | 1 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| N. Omier | 20 | 11 | 1 | 7/17 | 0/3 | 6/8 | 2 | 37 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| W. Poplar | 13 | 10 | 2 | 5/13 | 1/6 | 2/2 | 4 | 37 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| M. Cleveland | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3/6 | 1/2 | 0/0 | 3 | 29 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| B. Joseph | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2/9 | 0/4 | 2/2 | 2 | 36 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| M. Nwoko | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2/2 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Robinson | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1/2 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A. Casey | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Watson | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Mastin | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| K. George | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| N. Cassano | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| P. Djobet | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 72 | 33 | 13 | 28/66 | 6/23 | 10/13 | 16 | – | 10 | 5 | 13 |
UNC Bright Spots
RJ Davis had 25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals.
Elliott Cadeau had a career-high 19 points, 8 assists, 4 steals, and 3 rebounds.
Harrison Ingram had 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
Armando Bacot had 10 points, 15 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 1 steal.
Needs Work
When Carolina has a lead, they need to do a better job of extending their leads. Too many times they get lazy and unfocused defensively and allow their opponent to get a rhythm offensively. In addition, offensively, they need to stick with running the successful plays that got them the lead and not fall into the trap of playing iso ball and jacking up threes.
The Tar Heels must also do a better job of taking care of the ball. They had entirely too many careless and unforced turnovers in this game. There should never be a game where you have more turnovers than assists.
The Tar Heels need to be much better at the free-throw line. They shot 66% from the line today, which is totally unacceptable.
The Tar Heels must get more positive contributions from the bench, especially with Seth Trimble out. The bench players only had 1 point today and it was very hard to keep them on the floor with their struggles defensively and lack of impact on the floor.
Final Observations
The Tar Heels improve to 19-5 on the season, 11-2 in ACC play. This was a much-needed win against a solid team in Miami after their awful performance against Clemson this past Monday. Coming into today’s game, the Heels had lost 2 of their last three games. It seems that they need to get refocused as a team and get back to playing with a chip on their shoulder. With their recent success as a team winning 11 of their first 13 ACC games, the Tar Heels may have been feeling themselves too much and got away from the hard work, dedication, and focus it took for them to gain that success on the court.
The one good thing is the Tar Heels have bounced back every time they lost and possess the toughness to win close hard-fought games. North Carolina is now 6-1 on the road in ACC play and is still atop the ACC standings. One thing to look out for is the injury status of Seth Trimble. Trimble has been out the last two games, and it has really hurt the team because the Heels have got little to no bench production since he’s been out. The Heels will need guys like Jaelyn Withers, Paxson Wojcik, and Jalen Washington to step up and play with more confidence if Trimble needs to miss more time to relieve some of the pressure off the starters. If the Tar Heels can get some consistent production from the bench, it will take them to another level as a team. Next up is Syracuse on Tuesday, February 13 at 7:00 P.M. on ESPN
It makes no sense that the starters are playing the minutes that they’re playing. We haven’t done a good job of developing our bench this year. The bench at some point is going to have to come through for us.