Saturday night’s game was a vintage performance from North Carolina center/forward Armando Bacot. Playing in his 10th game against Duke, Bacot scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the win over the Blue Devils, recording another double-double.
With Duke doing a good job against RJ Davis, it opened up opportunities for others like Bacot and Harrison Ingram who both had over 20 points. And after the game, Bacot made another statement as he issued a warning to the rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“(The) ACC runs through me,” Bacot said. “All of the top bigs I play against, I feel like going into every matchup I’m going to win.”
While Bacot hasn’t had monster numbers this year, he’s been really good on the defensive end, providing value for the Tar Heels. Saturday was his best performance of the year and it came at the right time against a Duke team that was surging.
North Carolina is now 18-4 overall and 10-1 in ACC playing, grabbing a hold of the lead as the month of February rolls on. The Tar Heels are two games up on Virginia who has caught fire as of late. The two teams will meet later this month in Charlottesville as it will be a huge game in the ACC.
But for now, the Tar Heels are sending messages to the rest of the ACC that this isn’t last year’s team.
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