UNC basketball may have dodged bullet after Armando Bacot injured vs. Boston College
North Carolina’s quest to win a string of ACC tournament games and make the NCAA tournament this week might have gotten a bit tougher Wednesday when Armando Bacot went down late in the first half of a second-round game against Boston College with an apparent left ankle injury.
Bacot was in the starting lineup for the second half and played five and a half minutes before leaving the game for good. He finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 18 minutes.
“Once I took him out, then it was done, I didn’t want it to stiffen up or get cold,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “So once we took him out, I tried to keep him there as long as possible, and then took him out so he could be done for the night.”
UNC forward Pete Nance made up for Bacot’s absence defensively. The graduate transfer had four blocked shots — twice denying BC players on attempted dunks. But having watched BC rally when the team’s faced each other on Jan. 17 to cut an 11-point lead down to one, Bacot didn’t want to chance it.
“It was a must win, I didn’t want to leave it out there with them to have a chance to come back,” Bacot told ESPN after the game. “So I told the coaches, I told Doug (Halverson), I told Jonas (Sahratian), I give them a good four to six minutes to just give us a bump and then, we ended up coming out (in the second half), getting a good enough lead to where I could sit out.”
With 4:34 remaining in the first half of UNC’s ACC tournament game against the Eagles at Greensboro Coliseum, Bacot fell to the court in pain after a play when Boston College recorded a steal. After the Eagles scored, play was stopped and Bacot hopped on his right leg to the UNC bench.
After being examined by the team’s staff, Bacot limped as he left the bench area bound for the team’s locker room. UNC athletic trainer Doug Halverson accompanied him. UNC director of basketball operations Eric Hoots went into the crowd to get Bacot’s parents and bring them to the hallway were he was attempting to run on his ankle.
Bacot returned to the floor with a couple of minutes left during second half warmups, welcomed by rousing applause. He didn’t make any hard cuts, only jumping gingerly as he attempted a couple of shots. Bacot scored the first basket of the second half, although it was clear that he was limited in his movement when a low pass ended in a scramble for the loose ball and Bacot didn’t try to scrap for it on the floor.
“They were able to loosen it up at halftime and that’s why he felt like he could go out there and play,” Davis said.
A first-team, all-ACC selection and UNC’s all-time leading rebounder, the 6-11 Bacot averages 16.5 points and 10.8 rebounds this season. He scored eight points with five rebounds in 12 minutes of play against Boston College prior to his injury.
Bacot, a Richmond native, did not participate in any postgame locker room interviews after the win. Davis said he headed back to the team hotel to begin getting treatment. Bacot was injured seconds into the Heels’ loss at Virginia on Jan. 10 with an ankle injury.
As the Heels face the Cavaliers in the quarterfinals, with a win enhancing their NCAA tournament hopes, Bacot expects to play.
“Jonas and Doug, they’re gonna figure out something,” he said on the broadcast. “Just a lot of ice, pool work, needles, all that kind of stuff like that.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 8:18 PM with the headline "UNC basketball may have dodged bullet after Armando Bacot injured vs. Boston College."