It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy, but the Tar Heels opened 2024 with a road win at Pittsburgh, to earn the team its first true road win of the year, and its third Quad-1 victory of the season. Carolina didn’t score the first six and a half minutes of the game, yet only trailed 4-0 at the first media timeout. R.J. Davis (of course), would eventually sink the first UNC basket, to make it a 6-3 game, as Carolina would methodically claw itself back into the game on the offensive end, to take a 31-28 lead at the half, thanks to another Davis three right before the horn. After taking the lead going right into the half, Carolina would never trail in the second half, behind a strong defensive performance, and better half-court offense. Four players scored in double figures for UNC, led by Armando Bacot, who totaled 16 points, and 10 rebounds. Other Carolina players to score in double figures, included R.J. Davis (15), Cormac Ryan (10), and Seth Trimble (10) off the bench.
After the Kentucky game, it didn’t appear that Carolina was capable of being a quality defensive team, but they’ve been different since that loss to the Wildcats. They were dominant against Oklahoma and Charleston Southern to end the non-conference season, but that carried over tonight, holland Pitt to a season-low 57 points, on 31%, including just 17% from behind the three-point line. Entering the game, Pitt was averaging making 9.8 triples per game, on roughly 28 attempts, but tonight they were just 5-29.
Pitt entered tonight’s game as the best rebounding team in the ACC and was perceived to have the advantage in that area in tonight’s game. Instead, Carolina bullied them all night long on the glass, to the tune of 51-41, including grabbing 16 offensive rebounds. Bacot may have recorded a double-double, but Harrison Ingram was the best rebounder on the floor, grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds. When you factor in Ryan’s 7 rebounds to go along with Trimble’s 6, Carolina got quality contributions all over the floor, in their best rebounding performance of the season.
You put together a difficult non-conference slate, to get you ready for the conference season, which is now 20 games long. There’s no denying that the difficult stretch of games that UNC played from late November up until Christmas more than has this team ready to go, now that we’re in league play, and tonight it paid dividends in more ways than one:
First True Road Win: This was the latest in the calendar for the first true road game for the Carolina program since 1954, and after the first six minutes, it certainly looked that way. Once Carolina settled into the game, it was clear who the better team was, and Carolina never looked back. Considering Carolina plays at Clemson on Saturday, this extra boost of confidence will be needed when two of the best in the league square off, and to do it at the expense of the Capel brothers had to feel pretty good too.
Rebounding: There aren’t enough to describe tonight’s rebounding effort. We all knew that Carolina could improve in that area of the game, but I’m, not sure how many people saw this type of performance coming. Ingram struggled from the field, scoring 7 points, on 1-12, but impacted the game with his 15 rebounds. For Carolina to put together this type of performance against the best rebounding team in the conference, is a statement in more ways than one, and proves that this team can still rebound the way we’ve grown accustomed to over the years, even if it looks a little different. Pitt grabbed 14 offensive rebounds but only scored 1 second chance point, meanwhile, Carolina scored 15 second chance points, on 16 offensive rebounds.
Armando Bacot: It was another historic outing for Bacot, who became the seventh Tar Heel to score 2,000 career points, and he also recorded his 74th career double-double. Bacot struggled in big games earlier this year, but tonight was the steadying force his team needed him to be, controlling the paint on both ends.
Bench Production: Only Trimble and Jae’Lyn Withers played double-digit minutes off the bench, but they were impactful minutes once again. Trimble scored 10 points and grabbed 6 rebounds, and Withers scored 6 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in his time on the floor. Jalen Washington didn’t necessarily build off his career game from last Friday, but even was impactful, despite playing just 8 minutes. Carolina’s bench isn’t guaranteed to play the same minutes every game, but they are expected to be ready to contribute when called up. That happened in tonight; 's game, and it played a role in Carolina’s win.
Defense: This was as good a defensive performance as we’ve seen under Hubert Davis, and it was needed after the sluggish offensive start. Not only did Pitt score a season-low in points, and shoot just 31%, they did so in large part because Blake Hinson was a non-factor, scoring 11 points, on 4-16 shooting. After getting blitzed by UConn and Kentucky, this team has recommitted itself on that end of the floor, and tonight it was the catalyst for the first road win of the season.
Up Next: It’s another road test for the Tar Heels, as they’ll travel to #16 Clemson on Saturday, That game is set to tip at 12 PM on ESPN2.
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