Tar Heels Will Meet Pitt For Trip To ACC Final

Friday, March 15

Washington, D.C.

7 PM

North Carolina

Pittsburgh (Semifinal)

Jae'Lyn Withers

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

March 15, 2024 | Men's Basketball

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• Top-seeded North Carolina (26-6) plays fourth-seed Pittsburgh (22-10) in the first semifinal of the 2024 ACC Tournament Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
• The Tar Heels routed Florida State, 92-67, in the quarterfinals on Thursday. RJ Davis led four Tar Heels in double figures with 18, Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram each had 10 rebounds and helped Carolina outrebound the Seminoles by 26 and UNC scored a season-high 26 fastbreak points in advancing to the semifinals for the 54th time in 71 ACC Tournaments.
• Pittsburgh never trailed in defeating Wake Forest, 81-69, behind 30 points by Ishmael Leggett.
• The Tar Heels beat the Panthers, 70-57, in Pittsburgh on Jan. 2. Armando Bacot led the Tar Heels with 16 points, Harrison Ingram scored seven points but had a then-career-high 15 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
• UNC grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and outscored Pittsburgh, 15-1, in second-chance points.
• The Tar Heels won by 13 on the road despite missing their first 10 shots from the floor.
• Carolina held the Panthers to 30.9% from the floor, 26.5% in the second half.
• The Tar Heels have won seven in a row and are 26-6 overall.
• Carolina won its 33rd regular-season ACC title (22nd outright) with a 17-3 record, two games ahead of Duke.
• The 17 wins tied Virginia (17-1 in 2017-18) for the most in a season in ACC history and are the most since the league went to a 20-game schedule in 2019-20.
• The Tar Heels are the No. 4 team in the Associated Press poll. This is the 12th consecutive week the AP has ranked UNC in the top 10 and is the highest UNC has been ranked following the regular season since 2018-19, when it went to the ACC Tournament in Charlotte No. 3 in the nation.
• Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament for a record 27th time. UNC improved to 22-0 in the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed with the 25-point win over the Seminoles.
• The Tar Heels are 107-51 all-time in the ACC Tournament, including 5-1 in Capital One Arena (1-1 in 2005, 3-0 in 2016 and 1-0 in 2024).
• Carolina is 35-18 in the semifinals in the ACC Tournament having lost the last three times it played in the round (2019, 2021 and 2022).
• The Tar Heels and Panthers have split two previous ACC Tournament games – Pittsburgh beat Carolina in the 2014 quarterfinals in Greensboro, and UNC won, 88-71, in Washington, D.C., in the 2016 quarterfinals.
• Carolina is playing in its 54th ACC semifinal (Duke is second with 49). The other 2024 semifinalists include NC State (36), Virginia (27) and Pittsburgh (2).

GAME 33 NOTEBOOK
• Carolina has won 26 games, extending its NCAA record number of 25-win seasons to 41.
• Hubert Davis has 75 wins in three seasons, tying Roy Williams for the second most wins by a Carolina head coach in his first three seasons (Bill Guthridge won 80 from 1997-2000).
• Carolina is No. 4 in the nation in ESPN's Strength of Record behind Houston, Purdue and UConn.
• The Tar Heels are 6-2 against AP-ranked opponents this season with wins over No. 20 Arkansas, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 16 Clemson, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Duke (rankings when UNC played those teams).
• Carolina's 92-67 win over Florida State in the quarterfinals was the 20th time in 32 games this season the Tar Heels held their opponents to 70 or fewer points.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in rebounding, offensive rebounds and rebound margin. They outrebounded the Seminoles, 48-22. The 26-rebound margin was Carolina's second-largest margin ever in an ACC Tournament game (+27 vs. Clemson in 1969).
• Carolina has outrebounded its opponents in 21 straight games (+211), which include 18 wins.
• Carolina had 17 offensive rebounds, third most this season and most since it had 22 in the loss at Georgia Tech.
• Carolina made 16 of 20 from the free throw line, a percentage of .800. The Tar Heels are 12-1 this season when they make 80% from the line.
• Carolina scored 23 points off 12 FSU turnovers. The 23 points equaled the most vs. an ACC opponent by the Tar Heels this season (also in the 36-point home win over Syracuse).
• Carolina scored a season-high 26 fastbreak points (previous was 23 vs. Oklahoma).
• The Tar Heels went on a 12-0 run in the first half. UNC has produced at least one 10-0 run in 19 games this season.
• Carolina has led by double digits for the 19th time in 21 ACC games (regular season and Tournament).

RJ DAVIS
• ACC Player of the Year, the 15th Tar Heel to win the award (16th time overall) and first since Justin Jackson in 2016-17.
• Davis is the fifth UNC guard to win ACC Player of the Year with Phil Ford (1978), Michael Jordan (1984), Joseph Forte (2001) and Ty Lawson (2009).
• Davis made two three-pointers vs. Florida State to pass Brady Manek (98 in 2021-22) for the second most in a season by a Tar Heel. He has 99 and needs seven more to break Justin Jackson's single-season record.
• Davis is also on pace to break Shammond Williams' record for threes per game.
• Davis (1,975) passed Antawn Jamison (1,974) for ninth in UNC career scoring. Davis needs eight points to pass two-time ACC Player of the Year Larry Miller for eighth place and 25 points to become the eighth Tar Heel to score 2,000 career points.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Armando Bacot broke the ACC games played record in his final home contest on March 5 vs. Notre Dame, passing the 161-game mark set by Virginia's Kihei Clark from 2018-23 (the NCAA record is 178 by Iowa's Jordan Bohannon).
• The ACC semifinal vs. Pittsburgh will be Bacot's 165th game and 164th start. Bacot has started more games than any other player in ACC history has played.
• Bacot has scored 2,253 points, third most all-time by a Tar Heel ... needs 38 to pass Phil Ford (2,290) for second.
• Bacot has the 15th-most points in ACC history ... needs three points to pass Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney (2,255) for 14th and 17 to eclipse Maryland's Juan Dixon (2,269) for 13th.
• Bacot has 1,658 rebounds, most by a Tar Heel and second most in ACC history ... Bacot is 12th in rebounds in NCAA history ... he needs 16 to pass Morehead State's Kenneth Faried (1,673) for 11th and 18 to pass Morehead State's Steve Hamilton (1,675) to move into the top 10.
• Bacot is third in ACC history and tied for fifth in NCAA history with 83 double-doubles with Syracuse's Derrick Coleman and La Salle's Lionel Simmons ... Virginia's Ralph Sampson is second in ACC history and fourth in the NCAA with 84.
• RJ Davis has made 260 three-pointers, the third most all-time by a Tar Heel ... Marcus Paige is first (299) and Joel Berry II is second (266).
• Davis has 416 assists, which ties Theo Pinson for 16th in UNC history ... Jeff McInnis is 15th with 435.
• Davis has scored 671 points this season ... needs 29 for the 13th 700-point season in UNC history and the first since Jackson scored 731 in 2016-17.
• Harrison Ingram grabbed his 700th career rebound against FSU (has 702).
• Ingram has 297 rebounds this season ... needs three for 300.
• Ingram is three rebounds from joining Bacot as the first pair of Tar Heels to have 300 rebounds in a season since Tyler Zeller and John Henson in 2011-12.

• RJ Davis is the ACC's leading scorer (21.0 ppg), Armando Bacot is the league's top rebounder (10.1 rpg) and Harrison Ingram led the league in rebounding in conference games (10.9 rpg).
• Ingram had 10 boards vs. FSU, the 15th in the last 20 games he had double-figure rebounds, a stretch that began on Jan. 2 at Pittsburgh, when he pulled down a then-career-best 15.
• Cormac Ryan has made 37 three-pointers in the last 13 games, including three against Florida State.
• Ryan has made 64 threes this season, the most in his five-year college career (he made 63 at Notre Dame last season).
• Ryan made six three-pointers in each of Carolina's last two road games, wins at Virginia and Duke. He is the only Tar Heel ever to make six threes at both Virginia and Duke (only one to make six in Charlottesville and one of two, with Hubert Davis in 1992, to make six in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
• The Tar Heels made four more 3FGs than Florida State, improving to 17-2 this season (losses to Villanova and Syracuse) when they make more three-pointers.
• Elliot Cadeau had six assists and three steals vs. the Seminoles. Cadeau has eigth steals in the last three games.
• Seth Trimble tied his career high with 12 points against FSU. Carolina is 6-0 this season and 7-0 overall when Trimble scores in double figures.
• Trimble has scored 24 points in the last three games (six vs. Notre Dame, six at Duke and 12 vs. the Seminoles).
• Jae'Lyn Withers has 12 points and 15 rebounds in the last two games. He had eight rebounds in 11 minutes at Duke (which was more than any Blue Devil had in the game).

UNC-PITTSBURGH
• Carolina is 16-8 all-time against Pittsburgh, including 2-2 at neutral sites, and 1-1 in the ACC Tournament.
• Carolina's 70-57 road win on Jan. 2 snapped a three-game losing streak to the Panthers, two of which were played in Chapel Hill.
• UNC is 2-5 in the last seven games over the last five seasons.