CHAPEL HILL — NC State and North Carolina became a halfcourt battle in the paint, with the Tar Heels living at the foul line.
North Carolina pulled away for a 80-69 win over its rival Saturday on Saturday, but both coaches wanted to emphasize the hopeful return of NC State sophomore shooting guard Terquavion Smith.
Smith drove to the basket and fell hard after getting knocked off balance in the air due to a foul by North Carolina small forward Rechon “Leaky” Black, who was ejected due to a fragrant two foul. Smith felt numbness in his elbow and pain in his neck, and exited the game on a stretcher. Coach Kevin Keatts headed to the nearby hospital after his press conference to join Smith.
“Our prayers and thoughts right now are with Terquavion,” Keatts said. “We are waiting to hear back. It is a very emotional situation for me right now. Obviously, the game is very important and we fought, but my prayers and thoughts go to my players at these type of moments.
“I know Leaky Black, and I don’t think he’d make a dirty play. I haven’t seen it [the replay].”
NC State fell to 15-5 overall and 5-4 in the ACC, and North Carolina improved to 14-6 and 6-3 in the league. They are two of the eight teams in the ACC that five or six conference victories.
The UNC coaches and players also had Smith in their hearts, with Black making sure he has Smith's phone number to talk to him.
“He [Smith] is an unbelievable kid and unbelievable player, and you never want to see anybody get hurt or injured,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “He’s a fantastic player.”
Smith was fouled with 9:45 left in the game and NC State was trailing 59-49. Senior point guard Jarkel Joiner made both free throws, and then junior center Ebenezer Dowuona quickly scored inside to cut it to 59-53. NC State couldn’t slow down’s UNC inside-oriented game plan, and the free throws started to pile up.
North Carolina came out with a detailed purpose in the second half. Coach Davis wanted to get the ball inside, drive to the rim and slow down the attempted three-point shots.
Senior center Armando Bacot took over the game, which led to NC State’s post players picking up fouls in bunches. The Tar Heels dominated the free-throw line category, finishing the game 36-of-39 for 92 percent.
NC State picked up six team fouls in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half. The sixth team foul happened with 11:56 left in the first half, setting the tone for a parade of free throws.
“I’ve never been involved in a game with 39 free throws,” Keatts said. “That means we have to get a little more aggressive — we took 12, 12-for-12.”
NC State was short-handed before Smith’s injury, with senior center Dusan Mahorcic and redshirt junior power forward Jack Clark out, and freshman post player Isaiah Miranda likely redshirting.
“It was no surprise that it was that way,” said Keatts on the game being physical.
Bacot took advantage and finished with 23 points and 18 rebounds, and became the all-time school leader for double-doubles. The Tar Heels out-rebounded the Wolfpack 42-27, including plus-eight on offensive rebounding.
“You know he [Bacot] is going to give his best on both ends of the floor,” Davis said.
Keatts knows how hard it is to stop or slow down Bacot. The only thing that did was when he picked up his third foul and went to the bench. Keatts didn’t want to double Bacot and have him dish to open teammates.
“You can double him or pick your poison,” Keatts said.
If it wasn’t Bacot on the interior, it proved to be junior point guard R.J. Davis driving often to the rim. He went 14-of-14 from the free-throw line for 26 points. UNC only attempted five three-point attempts after halftime, missing all of them, and committed just one turnover in the second half.
“At the beginning of the game, I thought we took too many quick threes,” Coach Davis said. “I love threes, I do, but we are the best in the conference in terms of getting to the free-throw line. NC State is the worst right now at putting people at the free-throw line.”
NC State’s offense struggled other than when they passed the ball inside to redshirt junior center D.J. Burns. He scored 18 points in 25 minutes of action. The rest of the game shot 18-of-49 from the field for 36.7 percent.
NC State returns to action against retiring coach Mike Brey and Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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