“I feel bad for our seniors”, Stallings said of the loss to North Carolina. I hope that never happens again at North Carolina. The Duke guard is arguably the best shooter in the country, and no one is going to forget his signature moment that came on January 28, when he drained a game-winning three-pointer at Wake Forest. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half. Justin Jackson’s blistering touch from deep torched Pitt for five treys on 11 attempts, while Joel Berry added four 3-pointers.
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Coach Pitino’s 7th ranked Louisville squad ultimately lost to the #8 North Carolina Tar Heels, 74-63. It’s one forward Justin Jackson knows by heart.
While another week remains in SEC play for both teams, the Wildcats (24-5, 14-2) took an important step by twice rallying from eight points down to win the pivotal matchup.
That’s now how it went down Saturday afternoon for Pitt.
However, the Tar Heels’ momentum was short-lived, as the Wolfpack coasted its way through the rest of the game with five reserve players seeing time and the seniors getting a standing ovation as they exited the court.
“He just got in my face and said something I didn’t like”, said Pitino about the fan. “We can’t give up right now, we still have a lot of confidence in ourselves”. And in four of the previous seven years in which UNC has won an ACC regular-season title, the Tar Heels have gone on to also make the Final Four. They are also 14-12-1 against the spread on the season.
Jackson hardly did it alone. Led by Kennedy Meeks’ 10 boards, the Tar Heels out-rebounded the Panthers, 48-28. “So whenever we can stretch the defense and knock down some shots from outside, it opens it up more for them inside”.
No. 17 Southern Methodist 69, CT 61: Shake Milton scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half in Hartford, Conn.
The Wolfpack’s 13 made 3-pointers shrouded UNC’s six from the perimeter, and made the difference in establishing an insurmountable lead for the Tar Heels to contend with.
Kyle Datres drove in four runs and Ashton McGee had three hits in his first career start as the No. 9 Tar Heels topped Radford 9-3 Saturday at Boshamer Stadium.
“You have moments where you think about things, you doubt things”, Young said. “They do it to everyone”.
It was UNC’s third strong defensive effort in a row and an exponential improvement over the last time it played it played Pitt, when the Panthers made 13 3-pointers and shot 55.6 percent from the floor in an 80-78 nail-biter.
So, on Senior Day, as they bid farewell to program mainstays Jamel Artis, Michael Young, Chris Jones and Sheldon Jeter, the Panthers still have something to play for.
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A North Carolina University athletic department spokesman told LawNewz on Thursday that the fan did in fact leave the arena after the incident, but he was only asked by the university to leave the area of the stands near the tunnel where Coach Pitino would come back out on the floor after half time. They advanced to the championship game in three of those years. First, it clinches a double-bye for UNC in the ACC Tournament. At this point, any kind of postseason berth is in jeopardy.
