Every time UNC looked like it was ready to reclaim the momentum, Brown had an answer.
The feisty Bears, playing in their first NCAA Division I game since early 2020 after the Ivy League canceled its season a year ago, ran the lane seemingly at will, earning 42 points in the paint against a larger Tar Heels lineup and forcing the UNC faithful to the edge of their seats all night long at the Dean E. Smith Center.
Finally for the Tar Heels, after Armando Bacot helped his team keep up with Brown on the inside with an efficient night from in close, RJ Davis started splashing away from long range, hitting six 3-pointers on the night to finish with 26 points overall and help UNC edge Brown, 94-87.
UNC started slowly, getting into a back-and-forth with the Bears through the first, wide open five minutes. Brown took a 15-13 advantage into the first media break, thanks to a couple of clutch buckets from Nana Owusu-Ananem including the team’s first 3-pointer of the night.
And the Bears wouldn’t go away. Paxson Wojcik hit a pair of key buckets for Brown, answering Caleb Love and Brady Manek’s one-two punch at the other end.
Bacot was the first-half star for UNC, dropping in 14 points on 6-for-6 shooting with a pair of free throws. Davis added 12, including a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:05 of the half to temporarily draw UNC back even with Brown at 47 all, before the Bears’ Aaron Cooley dropped in a trey just before the horn to put the Bears ahead 50-47.
The second half was much of the same for both teams, with Brown scoring in the paint, and UNC doing the same to keep pace, until the latter stages of the second half. That’s when Davis got hot, hitting four 3-pointers in the second half and six overall.
Here’s what else we learned:
Big game Bacot
In a game that frustrated the Tar Heels — and the legions of fans watching both at the Smith Center and at home — one constant emerged for UNC that helped them through the multi-faceted attack Brown was throwing at them: Armando Bacot.
The 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior scored just eight points in the Heels’ season-opening win over Loyola of Maryland, but he brought his top game in a tight game against Brown. He finished 10 for 11 for 22 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and a steal. His 22 points were close to a career high and he finished with another double-double, the 19th of his career.
Bacot was 6 for 6 with 14 points in the first half, and was one of two players to score before the first media timeout of the second half for UNC as they kept Brown within shouting distance. Most of his points came from inside, and Brown had a hard time defending his inside moves, oftentimes letting him score rather than guard him too tightly to commit a foul.
With about 12 minutes to play, Bacot collected an offensive board and slammed it back down to ignite the home crowd, giving the Tar Heels life after they fell behind by six. From there, UNC appeared to regain its footing, finally going ahead with 9:44 to play, its first lead since about 6 minutes to play in the first half.
UNC needs to clean up its defense
From the outset of the game, Brown created and hit on a handful of open looks, which allowed the Bears to take — and keep — a lead much further into the game than the Heels would have liked.
Even when the Bears appeared bottled up, the Brown guards — and in particular Paxson Wojcik — found ways to create offense by weaving his way through the height of the Tar Heels.
Even when the Heels went on a run, and managed back-to-back 3s late in the first half to grab the momentum back, the open looks kept coming. Freshman Aaron Cooley calmly drained another trey at the buzzer to put Brown ahead by three at the half. More impressive for the Bears wasn’t just that they led by three (and eventually six), but that they put up 50 points before the break, and 87 overall, a lot of it from inside.
The Tar Heels’ paint presence wasn’t great
For all of the open looks the Bears got on offense, it wasn’t as much from the perimeter as one might think against the Tar Heels’ bigger lineup. Despite the Heels’ height inside, Brown led the way on points in the paint for most of the contest. Bacot, Manek and Dawson Garcia were good on the glass, and UNC had the advantage on rebounding, but defensively UNC had a hard time keeping the Bears at bay.
Brown finished the game with 42 points in the paint.
