Bacot takes control in second half as No. 7 UNC pulls away from Hokies (2024)

CHAPEL HILL N.C. — Virginia Tech never let seventh-ranked North Carolina seize control Saturday afternoon. The Hokies repeatedly cut the deficit to single digits in the second half, and an additional defensive stop had the potential to swing momentum to the visitors.

The Tar Heels’ answer each time Tech built momentum was getting the ball to Armando Bacot in the post. It didn’t matter whether that was in transition after Bacot sealed one of the Hokies’ post players or he established position in the set offense. When the 6-foot-11 forward received the pass, he was finishing around the basket.

Bacot took control in the second half. The Richmond native’s 25-point, 12-rebound performance helped UNC pull away in the final minutes to secure a 96-81 win over the Hokies in a sold-out Dean Smith Center.

“Armando is a great player. When he gets to that baseline or he gets close to the basket, it’s really hard to do much,” Tech forward Tyler Nickel said. “He’s an All-American for a reason and a really talented guy.”

The Hokies (14-11, 6-8 ACC) cut the deficit to single digits nine times in the second half, and even trimmed a 16-point deficit in the early stages of the second half down to 57-50 with 15 minutes to play.

It was during the subsequent possession when the Tar Heels (20-6, 12-3) began to establish Bacot in the post, and they made sure he turned into the offense’s focal point in the second half.

He scored on back-to-back possessions as UNC scored on three straight trips to get the lead back to 13, and Bacot’s three-point play when drawing Robbie Beran’s fourth foul with 11:33 remaining put UNC back ahead 68-56.

Beran and Lynn Kidd were saddled with four fouls for the majority of the second half. Mylyjael Poteat, Tech’s top post player off the bench, played with three fouls for most of the final 20 minutes.

“Mylyjael and Lynn, they gave us everything they could give us. It was a great effort,” Hokies coach Mike Young said. “… [Bacot] is a man. And those two kids did everything they could.”

Bacot took advantage of the Hokies’ foul trouble in the post by scoring 19 points and shooting 8 of 11 from the field in the second half.

“Armando was fantastic offensively,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said.

RJ Davis added 20 points and five assists for the Tar Heels. Cormac Ryan had 16 points and Harrison Ingram finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds.

Bacot and Ingram helped UNC finish with 54 points in the paint and combined for nine of the team’s 14 offensive rebounds.

“It’s very tough … when you have a guy like Bacot down there banging and you have guys like Ingram that’s going to crash the boards,” Tech guard MJ Collins said.

Collins led six Tech players in double figures with 18 points. Poteat had 15 points and eight rebounds.

Nickel had 14 points and shot 4 of 6 from 3-point range in his return to UNC. He spent the 2022-23 season with the Tar Heels before transferring to Tech.

“I didn’t say a word to him about coming back here,” Young said. “I’m sure he would tell you the same thing that he had a great experience. I thought he had better opportunities in our place to play a lot of minutes, and that’s certainly come to fruition. So I am proud of his effort today. I’m proud of his effort all year, through thick and thin. He’s a good one. He’s a darn good one.”

Kidd and Hunter Cattoor had 11 points apiece.

Sean Pedulla finished with 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. He did not play over the final nine minutes as Young elected to go with Collins at point guard.

“I wanted to see what we’ve got, and I liked the pop that that team played with and how the ball moved,” Young said of going with a different lineup. “Trying to win the game. Trying to win the game. And see if we could put ourselves in a position to do that. Had it down to nine, may have been eight, but into the post to Bacot it goes, and he got the best of us.”

Tech used sizzling 3-point shooting to keep the game close in the first half.

The Hokies were 6 of 14 from distance — led by Nickel’s three first-half 3s — and trailed 44-39 with 2:51 left in the opening stanza.

Tech, however, missed its final three 3s in the first half and missed 10 straight triples in the second half before Nickel’s 3 with 41.7 seconds remaining.

“I thought we were really cracking. That could have been a 10-, 11-, 12-make game,” Young said. “Tyler got a couple down in the first half and played well. I thought we were getting shots. Those shots were coming from guys we want shooting them in spots we want shooting them. We didn’t convert them. You better score with them because they’re going to score. They’re very, very good offensively.”

How critical were those missed opportunities from 3-point range?

Tech had three open looks from distance when trailing by single digits. All three failed to find the bottom of the net.

“Sometimes it’s just how the game is. You know, go through cold stretches, have unfortunate nights, unfortunate halves, whatever the case is,” Nickel said. “We kind of just got collectively cold and I can’t really attribute it to anything specifically. We got good looks, but just couldn’t hit them.”