PITTSBURGH – North Carolina had enough firepower to fight its way through a battle and past Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
The eighth-ranked Tar Heels defeated the Panthers 70-57 at the Petersen Events Center, picking up a quality win in their first true road game of the season while resuming full ACC league play.
It certainly wasn't anything pretty, but UNC was able to stop a three-game losing streak against Pitt. Carolina came after losing five of the last six games of that series, as UNC coach Hubert Davis went winless in three tries against the Panthers.
RJ Davis scored 15 points, Armando Bacot collected 16 points, 10 rebounds with three blocks and Seth Trimble made an important impact off the bench with 10 points and six rebounds. The Tar Heels prevailed, securing their third Quad 1 victory of the season despite shooting just 36.5 percent from the field, a cold lead that was dashed by the 10 straight misses that opened the night. UNC went nearly scoreless for the first 6½ minutes of the game.
The Tar Heels (10-3 overall, 2-0 ACC) jumped out to a nine-point lead, 47-38, in the second half, which is perhaps threatening in some ways considering they were in the second half of the last We had a nine-point lead this season, here in this building, two days before New Year's. Later, UNC's ball movement paid off for the Panthers as Harrison Ingram drained a 3-pointer for a 60-51 lead. Ingram missed his first 11 field throws but grabbed 15 rebounds. Bacot's dunk after a somewhat disjointed face-off with Trimble gave the Tar Heels a 62-51 lead with 3:41 left.
Carlton Carrington scored 20 points for Pitt (9-5, 0-3), which was winless to start the ACC portion of this season. Pitt standout Blake Hinson, who averaged 19.5 points per game, third-highest among ACC players, struggled mightily. He finished with 11 points on 4-for-16 shooting from the field.
Bacot became the seventh player in Carolina program history to surpass 2,000 career points. RJ Davis' streak of eight straight 20-point games came to an end. The first half ended with Davis sinking a catch-and-shoot three-pointer and nodding to the Pitt crowd before the Tar Heels left the court. Bacot passed to Davis there, and Elliot Cadeau passed to Davis, giving UNC a 31-28 lead at halftime.
UNC's RJ Davis drives on Pitt's Ishmael Leggett. (Photo: Jim Hawkins / Inside Carolina)
Seth Trimble's (needed) energy boost
NBA scouts from the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers were expected here for Tuesday night's game, and a personal look at Seth Trimble certainly wasn't on their particular agenda.
But sophomore guard Trimble was outstanding off the UNC bench in the first half, especially as the Tar Heels struggled to find a rhythm at times. Trimble had contributed nine points and five rebounds by halftime as Carolina led 31-28. And two consecutive moments late in the first half illustrated the energy he provided.
On a team inbounds set play, Trimble skied and caught a lob from RJ Davis for a dunk that drew oohs and ahhs from the crowd. As the shot clock expired, Trimble next hit a deep 3-pointer over Pitt's Jaland Lowe. That bomb came with 2:49 left in the first half, giving UNC a 24-20 lead.
Dueling cold snaps in the first half
After missing 10 straight shots from the field early in the game and not scoring until the 13:37 mark of the first half, UNC caught Pitt and took its first lead at 15:14 on Cormac Ryan's corner kick from an inbounds underneath . That's because on the second night of January, the Panthers were stuck on the field in the middle of 12 consecutive misses and dueling cold snaps.
Ryan's jump there was part of eight straight points for the Tar Heels. A little later, Elliot Cadeau's hard drive off the glass and Harrison Ingram's drive and dish to Armando Bacot gave UNC a 12-2 score and a 19-16 lead. At that point, neither team had shot more than 31 percent from the field.
Next on the agenda is
Carolina advances to the middle game on Saturday afternoon in its three-game road game against No. 16 Clemson (noon, ESPN2), a matchup of AP Top 25 teams considered early contenders in the ACC race. Clemson plays at Miami on Wednesday night.
It is the first of two regular-season meetings between the Tar Heels and Tigers, who have met once in each of the last five seasons. UNC leads the all-time series 135-23 against Clemson, including 41-18 in total road games and 30-15 at Littlejohn Coliseum. The Tar Heels are 6-2 in their last eight road games at Clemson.