UNC beats UCLA to advance. Tar Heels face Saint Peter’s Sunday for spot in Final Four
North Carolina continued the NCAA tournament run no one saw coming a month ago with its 71-66 win over UCLA on Friday to advance to the Elite Eight. The Tar Heels will face Saint Peter’s on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four in New Orleans.
Read that last sentence again: A spot in the Final Four.
A month ago for the No. 8 seed Heels, that seemed totally unrealistic. Now, it will be a disappointment if they don’t get there. All that is keeping Carolina from taking a trip to the site of its 1982 and 1993 titles is No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s, which advanced by upsetting No. 3 seed Purdue, 67-64.
“Our confidence never wavered, we knew even back then that we were this good of a team,” said UNC forward Armando Bacot, who had 14 points and 15 rebounds. “We knew if we played at a high level and just really bought into everything, we knew we could make it this far. Coach (Hubert) Davis and all the coaches, even when we struggled, always told us that. We never thought at one point we were a bad team.”
For a team that didn’t show a lot of heart early, they showed plenty in knocking off the Bruins.
UCLA led for nearly 27 minutes of the game. But Carolina (27-9) closed out the last four minutes of the game like a veteran team that had been in those situations before.
“We’ve been in those situations before, late-clock, late situations where a play needs to be had, and we’ve always stepped up to the challenge -- whether it’s worked out for us or not,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “So in those situations, we grab and hold on to those past experiences, and it gives us confidence and it gives us peace.”
That’s how UNC forward Brady Manek could shake off missing his first five shots in the second half, but make his sixth on a 3-pointer with 4:18 remaining to put Carolina up 61-60. UCLA called a timeout and as the teams walked to the sideline, Davis was as demonstrative as he’d been all game. Davis twice yelled out, “Let’s go” to no one in particular as he paced back and forth before making his way to their huddle.
It was Carolina’s first lead since a Caleb Love 3-pointer put them ahead 51-50 with 11:13 left.
UCLA responded by re-taking the lead on just its second basket of the game that came off an offensive rebound. Jules Bernard put back a Johnny Juzang miss for a 62-61 lead.
It seemed like the Heels had resorted too much to just shooting 3s. On their next possessions both Manek and Love missed from behind the arc. Love missed a second attempt with Carolina trailing by three, but he got a second chance when Bacot saved the ball back to him. Love pulled up for a follow 3 at the top of the key and tied the game with 1:40 left.
Love, who scored a career-high 30 points, followed that possession with a 3 to put the Heels up for good at 67-64 while looking over at Davis and mouthing, “I got you, I got you.”
When Bacot followed a R.J. Davis miss with 15 seconds, UNC went up five and the celebration started to bubble.
Here’s what we learned from Carolina’s win:
Saved by second chances
In what may have been the biggest shot of the game, Love missed a 3-pointer with the Heels down three with less than two minutes left. Bacot chased down the ball as it was headed out of bounds and in a leaping effort, flicked it back into play.
Love just happened to be the recipient of Bacot’s desperation save and he launched another 3-pointer at the top of the key to tie the game with 1:40 left.
“I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t get that board,” Bacot said. “I just was trying really to keep the play alive and just hopefully just threw the ball up hoping that somebody would get it. And it was great that Caleb had the instincts to find the ball, and then to hit a big three. That was huge.”
UCLA coach Mick Cronin called that offensive rebound the “turning point” of the game.
“That changed the game, we get that rebound, it’s a different -- but you never know what happens, but obviously that’s going to keep me up at night,” Cronin said. “Everybody in here saw. We get that rebound...”
Carolina shot just 35 percent form the field in the first half including making just 4 of 14 attempts from 3-point range. Fortunately for the Heels, they grabbed eight offensive rebounds which led to 12 second chance points.
The most emphatic came when R.J. Davis missed a short jumper and Brady Manek cleaned it up with a one-handed dunk.
Carolina outscored UCLA 12-0 in second chance points and only allowed the Bruins to get one offensive rebound in the first half. The Heels finished the game with a 19-6 advantage in second chance points.
Out of sync
All the chemistry Carolina showed on offense in the first two games of the tournament was thrown off in the first half by the Bruins defense. The Heels resorted to playing more like they did earlier in the season. There were a lot of 1-on-1 shots and too much dribbling instead of passing.
UNC had assists on 82 percent of its baskets against Marquette and Baylor. That number came back down Friday night, when the Heels had just 11 assists on 27 made baskets.
Manek was impacted most by it. He averaged 27 points in their first two NCAA Tournament games while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. But against the Bruins, he didn’t get as many clean looks at the basket and didn’t connect at a high rate.
Manek had 10 points in the first half, but the only basket he scored in the second half was that 3-pointer with about four minutes left. He finished 5-for-13 from the field and 3-for-10 from 3-point range.
“It doesn’t all come down to me making shots,” Manek said. “But yeah, I had an off-night, and these guys helped pull through.”
Defense catches up
UCLA’s top two leading scorers -- Juzang and Jaime Jaquez -- combined to shoot 7-for-12 in the first half as Jaquez had eight points and Juzang had seven. They seemed well on their way to having big games for the Bruins.
UNC’s Leaky Black spent most of his time chasing Juzang and he had to feel a bit deflated when he contested and had no effect on two of the jumpers Juzang made in the first half. That all changed in the second half.
Juzang finished with 14 points, but it took him 13 shots to get there. He was just 2-for-8 shooting in the second half.
Jaquez struggled mightily. He spent the whole week staying off a sprained right ankle he suffered in their win over St. Mary’s. The ankle seemed fine, but his shooting stroke wasn’t in the second half. Jaquez shot 1-for-11 from the floor in the second half and had just two points. Jaquez finished with 10 points on 5-for-18 shooting.
“We just played our principles, coach Davis has a game plan on the defensive end, and we just had to follow it,” Black said. “First half they were hitting some tough shots. We were there, and they just eventually in the second half started missing them. I mean, that was pretty much it.”
After shooting 48 percent in the first half, the Bruins shot 42 percent in the second.
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This story was originally published March 26, 2022 at 12:01 AM with the headline "UNC beats UCLA to advance. Tar Heels face Saint Peter’s Sunday for spot in Final Four."