by Matt Bowers
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Wake Forest raced out a big, first-half lead and held on for a 92-85 win over North Carolina on Tuesday night at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Tar Heels struggled on both ends of the court early as Wake’s lead ballooned to 26 points early in the second half. Carolina gradually chipped away at the deficit before rallying to cut the lead to as few as seven points in the final minute.
Caleb Love scored 22 second-half points to lead the furious comeback, responding with one of his best halves of the season after one of his worst in the opening 20 minutes. He hit 9 of 16 shot attempts in the second half, including 4 of 8 three-pointers, after shooting 0 for 9 in the first period. RJ Davis scored 16 points.
Armando Bacot was Carolina’s only viable offensive threat in the early going, scoring 13 of the team’s 25 points in the first half while no other Tar Heel had more than two. Foul trouble limited Bacot to four second-half points.
Carolina (15-9, 7-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) has lost three consecutive games, while the Demon Deacons (16-9, 8-6) continued to bounce back from a four-game losing streak with their second win in a row.
Tyree Appleby scored a game-high 35 points and dished out 11 assists for Wake Forest. Damari Monsanto hit three three-pointers and scored 16 for Wake.
The Tar Heels managed only nine assists as a team and lost despite out-rebounding WFU, 50-35. Carolina hit just 4 of 18 three-point tries as a team (22.2 percent). UNC shot 40.5 percent, under 50 percent for the ninth consecutive game.
Wake went on a 14-0 run to take command early with a combination of layups, dunks and easy shots. After trailing by 17 at 34-17, Bacot scored six consecutive points and forced a Deacon timeout before Wake responded with back-to-back three-pointers to push the lead back to 17. WFU eventually built a 22-point halftime lead at 47-25.
Bacot picked up his third and fourth foul in the opening minutes of the second half and sat for 10 minutes before fouling out with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Despite the limited playing time, he recorded his 64th career double-double and his 15th this season.
The Tar Heels will return to action with back-to-back home games on Saturday against Clemson and Monday against Miami.
