The North Carolina Tar Heels finished seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season, struggling all year long and eventually missing the NCAA Tournament. This year is different.
With North Carolina’s 84-51 win over Notre Dame on senior night Tuesday, the Tar Heels have clinched at least a share of the ACC regular season title. That sets up a showdown with Duke in Durham on Saturday night and a win would mean the Tar Heels are outright champs.
After the Tar Heels and Fighting Irish went back-and-forth to start the game, North Carolina pulled away. Down 18-16, Markus Burton missed a three-pointer in transition that would have given Notre Dame the lead. Instead, North Carolina went on a 23-9 run to end the half and take a 41-25 lead at the break.
In the second half, UNC blew it wide open.
The Tar Heels opened the half on a 16-0 run to grab a 57-25 lead and they never looked back. UNC dominated Notre Dame in the half both on the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
The lead got out to 32 at one point before a little bit of a sloppy stretch by UNC that saw it get down to 20. But still, the game never felt in danger for the Tar Heels.
RJ Davis led the way with 22 points while Armando Bacot and Cormac Ryan both had 14.
Player of the Game
The seniors. All of them. Thank you for it all. Thank you for the memories you have brought to the program. Let’s finish strong!
What’s next?
The rematch. North Carolina heads to Durham to face off against Duke in the regular season finale. A win by UNC means they win the conference outright while a loss means the two share the title and depending on what happens the rest of the week, the Blue Devils could steal the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament.