Lucas: Pitt Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Tough win for the Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament semifinals, creeping past Pitt, 72-65. It's the first ACC title game appearance for the Heels since 2018.

2. Carolina turned to Armando Bacot and RJ Davis down the stretch. Late in the game, they combined to score Carolina's final 16 straight, with Bacot doing work around the rim and Davis making some very tough jump shots. Davis finished with 25 points and Bacot scored 19. They were the only Tar Heels in double figures. Davis had 19 in the second half.

3. Armando Bacot earned his ACC All-Defensive honors in an unexpected way on Friday night. With Carolina switching everything and Pitt trying desperately to get points from their guards, Bacot spent most of the second half defending a smaller, quicker player. He got just enough stops to help the Heels build a lead and was terrific moving his feet and forcing the Panther perimeter players to make tough shots. It's impossible to understate the impact Bacot had on that game.

4. Another defensive standout: Harrison Ingram, who helped bother Blake Hinson into a 2-for-12 shooting performance.

5. Pitt went essentially exclusively to the backcourt in the second half, essentially conceding the paint to Carolina. As you'd expect, the Heels had a 34-20 edge in points in the paint. The Panthers, meanwhile, got 24 points from Carlton Carrington.

6. Pitt's 13-0 run midway through the first half was the decisive sequence of the first 20 minutes. That took the Panther lead as big as nine points and forced the Tar Heels to battle back over the rest of the half.

7. The way they did it was by forcing Pitt to go small. With the two Panther big men having a combined five fouls in the first half, Jeff Capel went small and watched the Heels go on a 10-2 run. That forced him to put Guillermo Diaz-Graham back in the game even with two fouls, and he was able to survive the rest of the half without fouling.

8. After Elliot Cadeau was electric on Thursday, he struggled in the first half. He shot 1-for-7 (taking the most shots on the team in the first half), took some ill-advised jumpers and had a couple bad turnovers, eventually causing Hubert Davis to go to Seth Trimble to finish out the final 90 seconds of the half.

9. Bacot's 19-point, 10-rebound double-double was the 84th in his career. That ties Ralph Sampson for the second-most in ACC history and fourth-most in NCAA history.

10. RJ Davis passed Larry Miller for eighth all-time in Carolina scoring history and now has 2,000 points in his UNC career.

11. Really good timeout with 38 seconds left by Hubert Davis. Carolina was in disarray offensively as Pitt elected not to foul with a four-point deficit. After resetting during the dead ball, the Heels got the ball to Davis, who was fouled and knocked in two free throws to push the lead back to six.

12. Carolina tightened down defensively late, limiting Pitt to just one for their final nine from the field. The Panthers thrived on jumpers early in the half, but died by jumpers late in the game.

13. After rave reviews from yesterday's Freddie Kiger reference, it felt only right to include a Fun Freddie Fact of the Day since we are in our nation's capital. Straight from the man himself--our tallest President was Abraham Lincoln at 6-foot-4. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both 6-foot-2. The point guard on your Presidential team would be James Madison, who was 5-foot-2. The more you know.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Harrison Ingram

Seth Trimble

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