by Matt Bowers
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Caleb Love tied his career with six three-pointers, Armando Bacot had another double-double and North Carolina tied its season high with 15 three-pointers while beating Clemson, 91-71, at the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon.
Love had his best shooting day of the season, hitting 7 of 12 shots overall and 6 of 9 from behind the arc, exploding for an efficient 23 points. He also had four assists and just one turnover. It was Love’s eighth 20-point game this season, and Carolina is now 20-3 in his career when he scores 20 or more.
Bacot finished with 19 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the floor and grabbed 11 rebounds. It was his 16th double-double this season and his 65th career (most in school history), as well as his UNC-record 72nd double-figure rebounding game.
RJ Davis hit four three-pointers and finished with 17 points and three assists. Puff Johnson scored eight off the bench while also grabbing three rebounds.
Carolina’s 15 three-pointers were a season-best in ACC play and tied the overall high set against The Citadel on December 13.
The win snapped a three-game Tar Heel losing streak and moved UNC to 16-9 overall this season, 8-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson, which entered the game tied with Virginia atop the ACC standings, fell to 18-7, 10-4, and a game behind UVA after the Cavaliers’ win over Duke. Carolina improved to 60-1 all-time at home against the Tigers.
“We took that L at Wake Forest, and we had a long talk after the game,” said Love. “We also had another players-only meeting. I feel like we addressed things that we need to work on, things that was holding us back. I feel like once we did that, we cleared the air and had a different mindset coming into practice the next day. Coming into this game we felt great because we had two good practices. We want to play hard, play smart, and play together.”
“We’ve got the talent, but like I said, we’ll have some great days of practice and go out there and not translate that,” Bacot agreed. “But, I thought today we did a good job of translating that. I mean, the reality is, our back is against the wall. Our only choice is to fight out.”
Carolina had shot 22.2 percent (16 for 72) from three-point territory in its previous three games but started Saturday hot from behind the stripe. The Tar Heels hit 6 of 15 (40.0 percent) from long range in the first half against the Tigers. Love hit 3 of 4 from three-point range in the first half, with Davis, Johnson and Leaky Black also connecting from deep.
UNC dominated inside in the first half, out-rebounding Clemson by a 22-12 margin that included an 8-1 edge on the offensive glass. Carolina also had a 9-2 advantage in both second-chance points and bench points as it got early contributions from Jalen Washington, D’Marco Dunn, Johnson and others.
PJ Hall scored Clemson’s first eight points of the game and led the Tigers with 12 first-half points before picking up his third foul in the closing minutes before the half and heading to the bench. Hall finished with 18 points, with Chase Hunter adding 15.
“Congratulations to those guys, Hubert [Davis], his staff and their team,” said Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. “They just played great today. We knew today they were going to be highly motivated and on point and play with great energy and togetherness. And they did. They shot the fire out of the ball, which always helps.”
Carolina pushed its lead to as many as 19 at 62-43 with 14:10 to go in the second half, with both Davis and Love connecting on multiple three-pointers. UNC hit 8 of its first 10 shots coming out of the break and never led by fewer than 12 points in the second half while building a lead that ballooned to as many as 25 points.
The Tar Heels will have a quick turnaround before hosting No. 19 Miami on Monday night at 7 p.m.
