CHAPEL HILL, NC – In recent weeks, Roy Williams has insisted on the need for his North Carolina team to play more games at home. Tar Heels proved his point again on Saturday, demolishing Louisville, 99-54, to get his best win of the season.
UNC (14-7, 8-5 ACC) improved to 8-0 at the Smith Center and had his eighth ACC victory ended at halftime. A 20-0 run in the second half made the media members roll the record books while the game clock was set to zero. The 45 point win was Tar Heels’ biggest in the ACC game since the 107-56 victory over NC State on March 9, 2017.
Louisville had not played for 19 days – the longest period of the season without playing in 54 years – and had limited opportunities to train due to a break at COVID-19 after his victory over Georgia Tech on February 1. This long layoff was evident after a solid start, as the Cardinals failed to match the UNC’s energy.
Tar Heels opened a game played with a 21-6 streak in the last seven minutes of the first half, taking a 48-29 lead to the break. The 48 points were the maximum that UNC scored in the first half of this season and the 19-point margin of the break was the highest of the season.
UNC shot 60.9 percent from the ground – its highest mark since the 62.3 percent shots in Wake Forest on February 16, 2019 – and 44.4 percent in three, while keeping Louisville at 32.8 percent shots. Tar Heels scored 26 points on 16 turnovers and got a 14-6 lead on second chance points.
Five Tar Heels scored in double figures, led by Day’Ron Sharpe’s 21 points and 11 rebounds and 19 points, the best of Kerwin Walton’s career. Armando Bacot contributed 14 points and nine rebounds, while Garrison Brooks added 12 points out of 5 out of 7 shots.
Freshman Boost
Garrison Brooks’ free throw to give UNC a 15-13 lead with 13:14 to play before the break was noteworthy because it was the last point a Tar Heel scored in the first half. The freshman class took the reins from that point on, marking the 33 end points of the break and beating the Cardinals by 16 points.
Walton took down a trio of 3 points and a jumper to score 11 points on that stretch, while Sharpe did his work on the edge with 12 points. Walker Kessler and RJ Davis added three points each, while Love crowned the half with a thunderous dunk in the doorbell.
Kessler finished with 10 points and four rebounds, while Love added nine points and three assists.
Free throw woes
However explosive the UNC may have been on the ground, its struggles continued from the charity streak. Tar Heels hit 38.9 percent of the free-throw line (7 of 18), thus lowering his percentage in the season to 64.9.
If that percentage remains, it would represent the worst UNC free throw percentage since 2013-14 (62.6) and its third worst percentage of the ACC era.
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Caleb Love closes the half with an exclamation ????#ACCMBB | @ caleb2love
– ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) February 21, 2021
Next
UNC will leave the conference once again to host Marquette at the Smith Center next Wednesday (19h / ESPN2). The Golden Eagles (10-12, 6-10 Big East) have lost six of their last eight games.