When Carolina won yesterday against Notre Dame, we knew as Carolina fans that to feel confident about UNC’s NCAA tournament chances, they would have to beat Wake Forest. And that is exactly what transpired on the hardwood Thursday afternoon in the Spectrum Center as Carolina beat Wake Forest 68-59 in a hard fought, gritty game. Carolina started out the game struggling as Wake came out of the gate hot with a 14-3 lead early on. But Carolina responded with a 10-0 run of their own, eventually making it 14-13. From there a back and forth affair commenced, with neither team taking control at any time.
Carolina took a 33-31 lead into halftime and came out of halftime red hot, going on a 9-0 run to take control. At that point it seemed like UNC would pull away and we would see a similar result to the Notre Dame game, but Wake Forest did not go away, rallying back to take a 46-45 lead around the 12-minute mark in the second half.
Around the eight-minute mark is where the game started to get chippy, as it had been a physical game to that point. Elliot Cadeau picked up his fourth foul as a part of a double foul with him and Cameron Hildreth, then quickly after this Juke Harris stuck out his foot to trip Jay’len Withers, earning a flagrant one foul. Following this, neither coach was happy, and not even a minute later, after Jay’len Withers drove hard to the basket and drew contact with no whistle, the UNC bench picked up a technical foul, which enabled Wake to take a one-point lead. Neither team was shooting the ball well at this point, and the referees had let go of a substantial amount of contact. Carolina held a 57-56 lead at the under-4 timeout but at that point it felt like anyone’s game. From that point on Carolina finished strong, going on an 11-3 run to close the game. Sparked by an RJ Davis three-pointer, UNC put away Wake Forest to advance to the ACC tournament semifinals, where they will play Duke.
The box score on this game was an ugly one in some ways, but in other ways pretty for Carolina, as they shot 33.9 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three-point range but were 22-27 from the foul line. UNC also outrebounded Wake 46-38, a huge difference from the last time these teams played, when Wake Forest won the rebounding battle 41-33. RJ Davis led Carolina with 23 points, Ven Allen Lubin had another double-double, which included two monster dunks, which helped put Wake away late. Jay’len Withers struggled from the field, going 2-9, but he was big on the glass with 9 rebounds, second on the team to Lubin’s 13. He also led the team with 3 assists on a day where assists were hard to come by for Carolina, (they had just 8 total.) Here are some main takeaways from the win.
RJ Davis Shines: In a game where points were hard to come by and shots were not falling, RJ Davis somewhat quietly had himself a day, going 5-9 from the field with 5 three pointers in 37 minutes. He was 8-8 from the foul line and played solid defense. This is the leadership and scoring we’ve been needing from RJ, and he provided it in a big way. He needs to do the same tomorrow against another tough defensive team in Duke.
Rebounding: This was one of the games where Carolina didn’t necessarily have to win the rebounding battle, but on a day where Wake shot just 33.9% and 9.1% from three, it didn’t hurt. Lubin and Withers were the main rebounders, Seth Trimble added 4, and multiple others had 3. UNC made rebounding a team effort in this game and it paid off big time.
Perimeter Defense: When Seth Trimble entered the game UNC was down 11-2. Hunter Sallis made a three to make it 14-3, and then we saw the impact Seth Trimble can make on a game. After the teams traded misses and a turnover, Trimble attacked the basket, drew a foul, made both free throws, then played incredible defense the rest of the half. Drake Powell also deserves some credit for this as well as his length guarding the ball combined with Trimbles' athleticism energized the Tar Heels. While Hunter Sallis did end up with 25 points, Carolina didn’t let that be the reason they lost and played great defense on the other guards, not letting them beat them.
Toughness: There were multiple times in this game where Carolina could have just rolled over and given up, but this team showed fight and determination all game in the face of a large amount of adversity. Part of that was due to Lubin’s ridiculous amount of effort, other times it was RJ Davis stepping up and hitting the big shot to give Carolina a spark when Wake looked to have all the momentum. Other times Carolina needed something in the form of a big stop and rebound and it was Jay’len Withers who delivered. All in all, this game showed the type of fight and heart that we’ve been waiting to see out of this team since November. With Duke coming up, they will have to continue to show that type of effort moving forward.
Up Next: Carolina moves to 22-12 overall, and moves on to face Duke in the ACC semifinal tomorrow at 7 PM EST.
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