Tuesday night, the Tar Heels hosted the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for Senior Night in the Dean Smith Center as they honored seven seniors headlined by Armando Bacot and R.J. Davis. Thanks to big showings from them and fellow senior night honoree Cormac Ryan, the team put together their most dominant performance in the second half of conference play with a 84-51 victory.
The game was a back-and-forth affair for the first ten minutes, but the Tar Heels closed the first half on a 23-9 run to take a 16-point lead into the halftime break, the largest since the 17-point margin they held against Louisville at the half back on January 17th.
The team would carry that success over into the second half, ripping off a 16-0 run right out the gate to extend the lead to 32 in the first 5:25 of the half. The lead would grow to as many 38 before Notre Dame would close it back to 33 in the final few minutes. That final margin is the biggest since the team’s 36-point drubbing of Syracuse back on January 13th.
Carolina shot well from the field again, hitting 32 of their 71 shots, including 16 of their 31 in the first half. The biggest reason the Tar Heels were able to score the way they did, though, was because of how well they shot the three. They connected on 11 of their 29 attempts from deep, their most makes from the behind the arc since they hit 12 in the loss to Syracuse back on February 13th.
Defensively, the Tar Heels were active all night, led by Ryan and Seth Trimble, who were the main reasons that both Markus Burton and Brenden Shrewsberry failed to reach double figures. The team as a whole did a good job of getting their hands in passing lanes, creating 12 turnovers from the Irish and deflecting plenty of other pass attempts.
The Fighting Irish had won two consecutive games over ACC teams that were in the NCAA Tournament field at the time they played and was hoping to catch Carolina looking ahead to Duke like Georgia Tech did earlier this year. Instead, the Tar Heels responded with one of their most dominant performances of the entire season. Here is what you should take away from tonight’s conclusion to the home slate.
Comfortable Win Was Needed: While the Tar Heels have led by double figures at some point in 17 of their 19 conference games, this was just the team’s second double-digit win since January 22nd. The concern over the team’s inability to put opponents away in the second half has been a talking point for the majority of the second half of the season, but tonight, they left no doubt, allowing their most important players to get some needed rest before Saturday’s season finale.
R.J. Leaves Smith Center With Another Big Night: It may not have been the 42 that he had against Miami, but he finished with a team-high 22 points on 9-15 from the field and 4-6 from three. This is the 19th time this season that Davis has scored at least 20 points, which is tied for the most in program history in a single season with Justin Jackson, who did so back in 2016-17. He also moved the ball incredibly well, finishing with a team-leading six assists while committing just one turnover. If this is in fact his final game in the Smith Center, it was a pretty good one to leave with.
Bigs Step Up and Step Out: While the team as a whole had a good night offensively, it was the bigs who may have shined the most. Armando Bacot scored 14 points on 4-8 from the field in what was his final game in the Smith Center. The most memorable part of the night was him hitting not one, but two threes after entering the night having made just three in his first 161 games at the college level. Jalen Washington had a productive night for himself, as well, scoring 10 points on 4-5 from the field and knocking down two threes of his own.
Back on Top in the ACC: With the victory, the team has clinched at least a share of the ACC regular season title for the 33rd time in program history, the most in conference history. It is the team’s first conference title since 2018-19 and the 16 conference victories are tied for the most in program history with that year's team. They will now look for their first outright regular season conference title since 2016-17 with a program record 17th conference win on Saturday in Durham against the rival Blue Devils who are hoping to claim a share of that regular season title.
That One Was For the Seniors and a Special Friend: This was the perfect way to send out the seven Tar Heels that most likely played their final game in the Smith Center on Tuesday night. That one was for Armando. That one was for R.J.. That one was for Cormac. That one was for Paxson. That one was for Creighton. That one was for Rob. And that one was for Duwe. Most importantly, though, that one was for a special friend of ours. We rarely get personal here, but on a night like tonight we have to. That one was for you, Mark Baker. That one was for you, buddy. Love you, man.
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