Quite literally
In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Florida knocked off UNC 90-84, Clemson lost to South Carolina in OT 91-88, Florida State crushed Winthrop 82-64, Wake beat James Madison 75-58 and Stanford monitored Merrimack 74-68.
UNC’s patterns continue: a slow start and poor production from the big guys.
The Tar Heels fell behind early, going down 42-25 in the first half. They again rallied later, down just 46-45 at the 17:35 mark. They took the lead a couple of times later in the second half but couldn’t keep it.
And while RJ Davis played well, scoring 29 and passing Phil Ford as the #3 all-time scoring leader at UNC, he hit just 3-11 for threes. In fact, the Tar Heels shot just 5-28 (17.9 percent) for threes. Other than Davis, only Elliot Cadeau and Ian Jackson hit any threes with one each.
You can win with a guard-heavy team, but you better either defend aggressively - think Pitino and his small backcourts - or score well.
Ven-Allen Lubin had seven points and four rebounds. Jalen Washington had seven as well.
Cade Tyson, who was so great last time out, didn’t score at all.
With the loss, UNC falls to a mediocre 6-5.
Clemson lost too, but it’s not a surprise. Nothing is between the Tigers and South Carolina.
We’ll give Dillon Hunter this: he’s got a hardhead.
Hunter got ejected with 12:46 to play for head butting Morris Ugusuk. Did Ugusuk flop? Probably somewhat. Did it matter? Not really.
If you do something that stupid and obvious, you’re probably going to get booted, and Hunter did.
But Clemson survived into overtime and might have gone to two if former Blue Devil Christian Reeves had converted his free throws: he had a pair with :03 left and missed the first while hitting the second.
Hunter’s big brother Chase had 27 to pace the Tigers while Ian Schieffelin had 23 points and 12 boards.
Maliq Ewin had a big-time double-double with 21 points and 15 rebounds. He wasn’t messing around either, shooting 10-15. Jamir Watkins tossed in 23. Winthrop is not a major opponent or anything but FSU is now 9-3 and may be one of the better teams in the conference. Time will tell.
James Madison is not a prime opponent either but a win is a win and Wake got a 17 point win here, so bully for them.
Hunter Sallis had 27 points and 12 rebounds to pace Wake. In an interesting development, Parker Friedrichsen started ahead of Cameron Hildreth.
The Deacs started slow but came on after the half to seize control. James Madison is not what we saw last year, but it’s still encouraging for Wake Forest to have a solid outing - okay, half of it.
Stanford had a hot start but then Merrimack fought their way back into it, finally losing by six.
As we expected, Maxime Raynaud was a handful for the Warriors with 16 points and 16 rebounds and Duke transfer Jaylen Blakes had a nice night with 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Two games Wednesday as Memphis visits a struggling Virginia and Georgia Tech hosts UMBC.
Wednesday's ACC Action
