North Carolina’s Late Jumper Sinks Pitt, 67-66

Chapel Hill, NC- RJ Davis scored 18 points, Ven-Allen Lubin added 17, and North Carolina defeated Pittsburgh 67-66 on Saturday in a back-and-forth battle between two teams in need of a win. 

North Carolina (14-10, 7-5) won after losing four of five games, including a 73-65 setback at Pittsburgh on Jan. 28. The Panthers (14-9, 5-7) have lost seven of nine. 

Davis hit a jumper to give North Carolina a 67-66 lead with 52 seconds left in the second half. His shot marked the 12th lead change of the second half and led to a sequence in which the Tar Heels twice missed the front end of the one-and-one without giving up possession. 

Pitt’s Jaland Lowe missed a jumper with 27 seconds remaining, got his own rebound and missed on the follow. Lubin, a 67% free-throw shooter, got the rebound of the second shot, was fouled and missed the front end of the one-and-one. Seth Trimble, who is an 84% free-throw shooter, got the offensive rebound for the Tar Heels, was fouled and missed the front end himself. 

After Pitt’s Ishmael Leggett grabbed the rebound, the Panthers called timeout with 13 seconds left. Leggett’s jumper was off the mark as time ran out. 

With the exception of a brief six-point lead by the Tar Heels, neither team led by more than three points in the second half. 

Trimble had 15 points and Drake Powell had 10 for UNC. 

Cameron Corhen scored 17 and Lowe 15 for Pitt. 

North Carolina led 30-19 with five minutes left in the first half. Pitt rallied with a 10-0 run to get within 30-29 but North Carolina led 35-32 at the break. 

Takeaways: 1. Heartburn for Tar Heel faithful Carolina wins over Pitt, 67-66. That’s a school record for one-possession games in a season (10) and UNC is 6-4 in those games.

2. The Heels held Pitt scoreless in the final two minutes with a variety of deflections and hustle plays that were huge. In six of the last eight halves coming into today, opponents had shot at least 50 percent from the field. But the Heels held Pitt to 42.3 percent for the game. 

3. The flip side is that the game was only in doubt because Carolina struggled at the line, as the Tarheels were 8-15 at the line. 

4 For the second straight game against Pitt, Carolina struggled when Cadeau played his way into early foul trouble. The Tar Heels need their point guard on the floor. He has now collected two fouls in the first half of seven of UNC’s 12 ACC games. 

5. Seth Trimble was again Carolina’s leading rebounder, pulling down seven. He continues to be on pace to be Carolina’s shortest team leading rebounder since 1950. 

6. The Tar Heels need to unlock Ian Jackson who was 0-for-3 from the field and looked out of sync in his 22 minutes. Jackson has now scored in double figures just once in the last six outings. 

North Carolina is at Clemson on Monday. Pitt is at SMU on Tuesday.