CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Mike Young was a guard in his playing days — “a really bad guard,” he says — so back then he didn't have to deal with big bodies, much less as physical as North Carolina's Armando. Needless to say, he is an active player. Bacot.
“Can you imagine wrestling that guy?” Young asked after the Hokies' 96-81 loss to No. 7 North Carolina on Saturday. “he Man”
Bacot led UNC's dominant low-post and rebounding attack at the Dean Smith Center, scoring a game-high 25 points and 12 points as the Tar Heels overwhelmed a short-handed Hokies frontcourt plagued by fouls. Got the rebound.
No. 1 North Carolina (20-6, 12-3 ACC) scored 54 points in the paint, the second-most of the season, and outrebounded the Hokies by a 43-31 margin, leading to No. 2 Tech. has almost doubled. chance point.
While many Tar Heel players cleared the boards, forward Harrison Ingram scored a game-high 17 points, including 12 in the first half. The Hokies' biggest paycheck in the post was fifth-year Bacot, who has played the position multiple times. Get closer to the basket and make easy work of various post movements.
“He outplayed them,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said.
“When a post player catches the ball deep, when he catches the ball near the box or two feet in the paint, it's really, really difficult,” Young said. “He just turns around and gets up on you and shoots it. A really good player beat us today. … A good team beat us today. Is it more than that? I don’t know.”
This was the most points allowed by Virginia Tech (14-11, 6-8 ACC) all season. RJ Davis had 20 points and Cormac Ryan had 16 points for the Heels, and the guard duo made 7 of 15 3-pointers.
Tech had six players score in double figures, led by MJ Collins with 18 points and Maylijael Poteet with 15 points. The Hokies haven't won eight straight games at the Dean Dome since 2007.
North Carolina trailed almost from the start and took advantage of Virginia Tech's early foul trouble to take a 50-39 halftime lead.
All three key players in the Hokies' frontcourt (Lynn Kidd, Poteet and Robbie Beran) committed two fouls in the first half, along with Hunter Cattore, which Young called “brutal.” It was a hurdle. (Kidd only played 15 minutes in the game due to a foul.)
That forced Tech to play rarely used true freshman center Patrick Wessler (7-0) for a while, and UNC took advantage of the Hokies' minimally foul-aware frontcourt. The Heels had almost as many rebounds offensively (9) in the first half as the Hokies overall (13).
Still, the Hokies hung on, thanks in large part to hot 3-point shooting. Former UNC player Tyler Nickell and Collins made 5 of 8 long-range shots in the first half, and Nickell's triple and Jadon Young's two free throws put Tech up 44 with less than three minutes left. He came within 39.
But UNC ended the first half on a 6-0 run, with three open Hokies possessions, and a free throw, a Davis three and a basket from Elliott Caddo pushed the lead back to 11.
That momentum continued into the second half. Every time the Hokies got back to single digits, UNC had an answer.
Tech was up 70-62 with 10:04 left in the game when Ryan hit a 3 and Bacot hit a bank shot to push the lead back to 13 points.
A few minutes later, the Hokies cut the lead to seven points at 79-72, making it as close as it was in the second half. Davis responded with a putback after one of Nickel's career-high three blocks before Bacot scored four points on a 5-0 run to cut the lead from single digits to a comfortable 13 points. I returned it.
“Sometimes a good offense can beat a good defense,” Young said. [Bacot’s] Needless to say, good defenses routinely beat our good defenses. ”
It didn't help that Tech's shooting was ice cold either. At one point, the Hokies were making 6 of 11 threes, but in the second half they missed their first 10 shots from long range and only made 1 of their last 15 from 3-point land. It was a book.
“That's what the game is about,” said Nickell, who made 4 of his team's 7 3-3s and finished with 14 points. “Sometimes we've had cold spells, we've had unlucky nights, we've had unlucky halves, or whatever. And we've kind of just chilled out overall. We've been putting on a good look. We couldn't attack them.”
“They're going to score, so we better score together,” Young said.
The Hokies' starting back court was especially frigid. Kattoa and Sean Pedulla made 1-of-10 threes and just 6-of-23 from the field overall, compiling 21 points, nine points below their season average.
Wanting to make something happen, Young sat Pedulla until the final 9:13 and handed point guard duties to Collins, who made 7 of 15 from the field and had three assists.
“I'm trying to win the game, okay?” Young said. “I wanted to see what we had and I liked the pop and ball movement that that team plays. We're trying to win games. We're trying to win games and put ourselves in a position to do that. We’re trying to see if we can put ourselves out there.”
“That's how I grew up as a point guard,” Collins said. “I like playing for myself, but it's more important for my teammates and trying to get them into the best situation. So that's what I feel comfortable with. That's fine. I'm just trying to do whatever the team needs.”
With the loss, the Hokies, currently the No. 11 seed, qualified for Tuesday's ACC Tournament. The Tech team took a brief turn before returning to playing against a completely different style, and a simmering, defensive-minded Virginia comes to Cassell Coliseum on Monday night (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).
The Cavaliers aren't exactly a pretty team (witness their 49-47 win over Wake Forest on Saturday), but they did beat Tech in the team's first meeting in January in Charlottesville, 65-57. They have won nine of their last 10 games, including the win in . .17.
“There's going to be another good team challenging us,” Nickel said. “We have to find a way to get the job done.”
Box score: North Carolina 96, Virginia Tech 81
