North Carolina players with no name Brady Manek failed to buy a basket in the first half of Friday’s Sweet 16 game against UCLA. North Carolina players not named by Caleb Love failed to buy a basket in the second half. However, it was enough to get the job done, as seeded 8 Tar Heels moved to Elite Eight after sending seed 4 UCLA 73-66 after a heroic takeover by Love in one of the most impressive second halves. you’ll see from a player on the biggest college basketball stage.
Love, a striped sophomore who can sprint or get icy, finished with 30 points in the win and converted 27 of them during an epic second-half grab – splashing 3s, getting to the rim, throwing floats and delivering dimes. when he led UNC to victory. He scored 20 of his team’s 27 points in the last 12:53 of regulation time and had a 12:2 run to go for the Tar Heels that took him home. Manek finished with 13 points after taking a 10-point lead in the first half, while the other two—Armando Bakot and R. J. Davis—finished in double figures.
“He’s been fantastic all season,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said after the CBS game. “At the end of the day, you just need the guys to step up. And Caleb Love was fantastic.”
UCLA was in the lead for most of the game, but slowly waned as Love got heated up. Bruins stars Jules Bernard, Jaime Jacques, Johnny Jusang and Tiger Campbell scored in double figures. However, in the second half, the team scored 15 of 35 balls from the floor, and Jacques, consistently one of the most resilient strikers, scored 1 of 11 balls from the field in the last 20 minutes.
North Carolina was a team at the end of the season that fell into the NCAA Tournament bubbles due to a lackluster regular season resume. In March, he came alive and became a real contender with perhaps two of the most impressive victories in this tournament – first over the No. 1 seeded Baylor in the second round, and now with the Sweet 16 victory over UCLA, which was the “Finals” team four” last year on Friday.
“Our confidence has never wavered,” said UNC big man Armando Bacott. “We knew we were such a good team. We knew that we could go this way. Even when we fought, we never thought we were a bad team.”
Let’s move on to a few key takeaways from the game.
The unrivaled confidence of Caleb Love
After the first half, in which Love went 1-of-8 off the field and his only advantage was a 3-pointer, one would accept – heck, maybe even expect – that Love might step back and try to play the facilitator. Nope. Not Caleb Love.
“Never lose my level of confidence,” Love said after the game. “I feel like this is the best part of my game, not losing confidence there. When I’m there, I’m just in the mood. That’s what it was tonight.”
Love’s 30 points tied for the fifth most points for any UNC player in an NCAA tournament game since the shot clock era was established in the 1980s, matching his teammate R. J. Davis, who scored 30 points against Baylor in the second round.
UCLA wings fight UNC defense
The not-so-secret sauce in UCLA’s Final Four a season ago was his ability, with Jaime Jacques Jr. and Johnny Juzang, to create an attack with two of the best shots in the college ring. It just wasn’t a strong point on Friday as they put together 10 of 31 and 24 points, including 3 of 19 shots in the second half.
“We have the peace of mind and confidence that we can close games because we’ve done it before,” Davis said of UNC’s strong second half. “We’ve been in situations where you have to play and we’ve always risen to the challenge.”
Road to the Final Four
With the No. 1 seed eliminated by UNC and the No. 2–4 seed now omitted, there is now only one obstacle on the way to the Final Four for Tar Heels: Saint Peter’s No. 15 seed. The Peacocks is the history of the tournament as the first ever 15-seeded tournament to make it into the elite eight. But they will be a big underdog against UNC, as they have been throughout the tournament. This could potentially be what stands between the Final Four game between Duke and North Carolina, something that has never happened in the NCAA Tournament.