UNC survives poor shooting night to stay perfect at home with win over Boston College

UNC accomplished quite a feat Wednesday night: they shot just 29% from the field in a win over Boston College. The end of the game was pure chaos as the Tar Heels ended on an 8-0 run while in a 0-5 and 1-7 rut. Boston College failed to score in the last seven minutes to seal their fate.

The Eagles made just one of their 16 three-point attempts, but still managed to keep the game pretty close thanks to UNC’s poor shooting. The free throw discrepancy helped the Tar Heels make up for the cold shooting as they made 20 of their 25 attempts from the charity stripe. Boston College had just eight attempts from the line.

Caleb Love led the way for UNC with 16 points, just ahead of RJ Davis with 13 points. They were the only two Tar Heels in double figures. Leaky Black had a quietly solid night with eight points and five assists with no turnovers. Armando Bacot shot just 1-10 from the field on his way to six points, but contributed on the glass as always with 18 rebounds.

UNC was worked down low, uncharacteristically, being outscored in the paint 30-18. They had seven blocks and limited themselves to just eight turnovers in the game. The team is running at just about eight-deep right now, so the starters are having to play longer minutes than they may be used to. They are also in the midst of a stretch of quick turnarounds that are probably impacting the play on some level.

The Tar Heels held the Eagles to just 16 points in the second half after playing a very close first half. Carolina went to the locker room up 33-31, although I’m sure that neither team is pleased with anything that happened in either half. The second half was a struggle for both, as even UNC scored just 25 points after halftime. It was pretty brutal, but thankfully the Heels did just enough to come away with a win in an otherwise forgettable game.

We’ve come to really rely on Bacot putting up a double-double every time out and the offense absolutely goes as he goes more often than not. It is extremely rare for him to struggle to the extent that he did tonight, but his teammates did enough to pick him up to come away with the win.

Carolina gets two days to rest before being back in action on Saturday when they welcome NC State to the Dean Dome.