Chapel Hill woes return as Tar Heels blow out bubble battle with Tigers

Clemson dropped to 1-60 all-time in Chapel Hill. (Photo by Merrell Mann)

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Sat Feb 11 16:11:34 GMT-04:00 2023

For the first time in its 2022-23 ACC season, the Clemson men’s basketball team doesn’t own at least a share of the conference lead.

All too like recent seasons, however, the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament chances are starting to look bleak in February.

Fellow NCAA bubble team North Carolina (16-9, 8-6 ACC) snapped a three-game losing streak and sent Clemson (18-7, 10-4) to one of its own with a 91-71 edge at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill on Saturday afternoon.

Things started well for the Tigers, holding the lead halfway through the first half on the strength of a 12-point effort from PJ Hall in the period – eight making up Clemson’s first points of the game.

That final 10 minutes of the first half saw UNC’s offense come alive, however, scoring 26 points and knocking down all six of its made 3-pointers from before the break. Caleb Love (12) and Armando Bacot (10) were each already in double figures scoring.

The 42-33 halftime deficit was Clemson’s most since trailing by 10 in the eventual 87-77 loss at Wake Forest on January 17. Hall had three fouls charged to him over 13 first-half minutes and ACC player of the year candidate Hunter Tyson was held to three points on just two shots.

The Tar Heels quickly topped the 50-point mark two minutes into the second half and forced a Brad Brownell timeout.

UNC doubled-up Clemson on 3-pointers (10 to 5) en route to a 19-point edge over five minutes into the second half, with Love sinking five of those in seven attempts. The Tar Heels finished with 15 3-pointers on 33 attempts.

UNC pushed the lead to 25 with an 11-0 run.

"They (UNC) played great today," Brownell said. "We knew today they were going to be highly-motivated and on point. And play with great energy and togetherness and they did. They shot the fire out of the ball, which always helps. I need to look at what we did defensively -- we weren't very good and some of that has got to be my fault. I've got to do better with that.

"I didn't think we played poorly in the first half, but in the second half, we did not play well. They came out and started well and got out of character. We got a little individualistic and tried to do too much one-on-one and didn't play very well and it snow-balled on us and credit to Hubert (Davis) and their team...When you're up 12-15 most of the day, it's easier to play well and make it hard on somebody and they certainly made it really hard on us today."

ESPN NCAA Tournament bracketologist Joe Lunardi had both teams on the edge of missing the field of 68 going into the game, saying that UNC would be out with a loss and Clemson would fall to the ‘Last Four In’ with a defeat. The Tigers entered the day with a non-conference strength of schedule rated 343rd nationally and an overall NCAA NET resume ranking of 70th.

The game Saturday was a rare shot at a NET Quadrant 1 win in ACC play this year, where the Tigers fell to 3-4 this season, and the next one won’t come until Feb. 25 at NC State.

Clemson last made the NCAA Tournament in the pandemic-affected 2020-21 campaign. The NCAAs trip before that was the Sweet 16 run in 2017-18.

The Tigers dropped to 1-60 all-time in Chapel Hill after grabbing that first win over the Tar Heels there on the previous trip in 2020.

Tyson passed the career 1,000-point mark with a 3-pointer in the first half of the first half but was held to just the two first-half shot attempts over the game.

"A little (surprising) but (UNC's) Leaky Black is a great defender," Brownell said of Tyson's offensive absence. "He took him out of some things. I think Hunter passed up a couple...I thought we did not do a good job of moving the ball. When we got down and got behind in the second half, probably my perimeter players put their head down some. There's some space there to drive, but we aren't as efficient as we need to be and so that's probably kept him from getting some touches."

Hall led Clemson with 18 points and Chase Hunter scored 15 on 3-of-16 (1-of-8 on 3s) shooting (8-of-8 on free throws).

Clemson returns to action back home versus Florida State on Wednesday at 7 p.m., seeking a regular-season sweep (RSN).

"It's hard to go through a season and not have a bad week, right?" Brownell said in response to question on how his team can return to its earlier ACC form. We're not going to overreact. We've played a lot of good basketball. Very few teams don't have a bad week. We've had a little bit of a bad week. We've had some guys out. We're now just getting them back. I think a little bit of that has thrown off our rhythm and timing a little. Guys being out, I don't know that they come back quite as sharp, and we've just got to get back and stick with it.

"We're fine. I know we've had a bad week and we don't want to but there's still 12 or 13 teams in the league that would probably love to change places with it. Let's not overreact to a bad week."