And Clemson and Miami get back on track
In Saturday’s ACC Action, UNC crushed Syracuse, 103-67, Clemson got by BC 89-78, NC State slipped by Louisville 89-83, Wake Forest clubbed Virginia 66-47, Florida State took out Notre Dame 67-58 and Miami nipped Virginia Tech 75-71.
We thought that Syracuse might have been able to match up reasonably well with UNC, but that certainly didn’t happen. Syracuse led once- 3-2 - and that was the end of that.
UNC’s bigs owned the paint. Armando Bacot had 16 points and 11 boards. Harrison Ingram had 11 and 10. Jalen Washington had 11 while Jae’Lyn Withers got 10.
That’s 48 from the big guys.
This was just no contest. UNC ripped off a 34-11 run and that’s really hard to overcome. Our question at the beginning of the season was which Hubert Davis we’d see: the one who struggled for most of his first season and virtually all of last season or the one who took his team to the Final Four. Right now the evidence is leaning towards the good Hubert.
Clemson’s defense has been awful lately but was it better against BC? Not necessarily.
Boston College only had seven players for this game and the Eagles managed 50.8 percent overall and 40 percent of their threes.
Clemson got the offense going again though. PJ Hall had 26 points and 11 rebounds. Joe Girard matched him on points and also had six rebounds.
Clemson had a couple of 17 point leads before Boston College got back into it late, basically in garbage time. Too little too late of course.
The Tigers thus break a three-game losing streak.
Louisville wasn’t able to follow up on the big upset of Miami but the Cards did give NC State a solid game.
The score was tied 58-58 with 9:54 left before the Pack got some separation and evnetually State was up 83-69 with 2:18 to play. Ultimately Louisville’s defense just didn't get it done as the Pack hit 54.2 percent overall and split on their threes, hitting 10-20.
DJ Horne had a big game off the bench with 27 while Mike James paced the Cards with 20.
Louisville is slowly improving, arguably, but obviously not enough.
Virginia needs some improvement too. Wake Forest is the latest team to handle the Cavaliers with relative ease, winning 66-47. Virginia started the game shooting 1-13. They actually kept it close at halftime, down just 27-21 before Wake blew them away in the second.
Only Reece Beekman got to double figures with just 10 and he shot just 3-12. The Cavaliers shot just 16-57 and hit just 4-12 from deep.
Wake by contrast hit 50 percent and 10 of 21 three pointers (47.6 percent).
Notable: since Efton Reid gained eligibility, the Deacs are 8-1.
We thought that Notre Dame’s defense could suppress Florida State’s offense but that didn’t happen. FSU handled it with ease, leading by as much as 14. The Irish did mount a credible comeback, cutting the lead to 61-58 with 1:25 left but again, too little, too late.
Braeden Shrewsberry, who has been very effective recently, was held to 3-9 and 2-5 three pointers. Markus Burton had 20 to pace the Irish.
Florida State went deep into the bench which is catnip for Leonard Hamilton, playing 10 guys double-digit minutes.
Virginia Tech had to go without Hunter Cattoor, who was injured last time out against Clemson and still nearly beat Miami. Granted it was at Cassell, but even so, Miami should be a load and more so without senior leader Cattoor.
It was a tight game to nearly the end and Virginia Tech had a chance to tie the game with :07 to play but MJ Collins couldn’t hit a three.
Miami was on fire in the second half, shooting 65 percent. Matthew Cleveland shot 7-11 for 21 points and Nijel Pack was right behind shooting 7-12 for 19.
Sean Pedulla is playing as well as any guard in the ACC. Mike Young’s point guard lit up Miami for 33. He also had 10 boards and four assists. On the downside he had six turnovers. That’s not good but the whole package?
Worth it.
No games until Monday when the Irish visit BC.
The league has started to separate somewhat. UNC is alone at the top at 5-0 while FSU, Duke, NC State and Wake Forest are all 4-1. Miami is 3-2 then Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson and Syracuse are all 2-3.
Some will rise and some will fall obviously but seeing how the bottom five teams do will be very interesting too.
