UNC basketball bolsters March Madness resume with win over Notre Dame in ACC Tournament

Sometimes, in basketball, you’re just feeling it.

You’re at home, you like the gym, you like the rims. Everything feels … right.

So it was Wednesday for North Carolina’s Jae’Lyn Withers in the Tar Heels’ opening game in the ACC Tournament against Notre Dame.

Withers started shooting 3-pointers and didn’t stop — not in the first half — as the Tar Heels raced to a 76-56 victory over the Irish at the Spectrum Center. The Charlotte native, playing before the home folks, had seven 3-pointers and 21 points as the Heels, seeded No. 5, moved into a quarterfinal matchup with Wake Forest.

“There was a little bit of nerves, you now, coming back and playing in front of a lot of people who know me personally.” Withers said. “But after warmups, it was just confidence and adrenaline pumping.”

Withers, as he has all season, kissed three fingers and pointed to the rafters after some of his made threes. When he was done, he had made seven of 10, setting the UNC record for 3-pointers in an ACC Tournament game jointly held by Jason Capel (2001), Harrison Barnes (2011) and P.J. Hairston (2013).

Withers has a tattoo on his left shoulder that says “The World Is Yours.” Asked if he felt that way Wednesday, he smiled.

“Yeah, something like that,” he said. “Something like that.”

The Tar Heels (21-12) looked the part of a refreshed, energized team ready to shed the loss to Duke and be a more complete team in postseason. The Heels realize a strong run in Charlotte is necessary to impress the NCAA basketball selection committee enough to get an NCAA tournament berth — a championship, of course, would take care of it, too.

With Withers on a tear and Ven-Allen Lubin scoring 17 low-post points to go with 10 rebounds, the Heels did not need a big game from R.J. Davis, their leading scorer. Again playing with his right thumb taped, Davis finished with 13 points.

The Tar Heels, always looking to run after Notre Dame misses and moving the ball crisply, led by as many as 21 points in the first half. This would be anything but like the game at Notre Dame in early January, when the Heels escaped with a 74-73 win on a four-point play by Elliot Cadeau in the final seconds.

There was Withers doing his thing with the threes. But everyone, it seemed, wanted in on the shooting binge. Davis, Cadeau, Drake Powell, Jalen Washington all hit 3-pointers in the opening half.

Even Lubin let one go from the right wing — his first of the season. He also missed.

On one first-half possession, the Heels seemingly had all five players touch the ball on quick, precision passes — some more than once — before the possession ended with Lubin dunking.

There was some UNC slippage late in the half, as the Irish scored the last six points to narrow the margin to 43-29.

Notre Dame’s Matt Allocco knocked down a three just before the half, just as he did a few minutes earlier when he looked to the UNC bench after his shot and yelled, “Shut up.” That raised the ire of the UNC bench and had referee Roger Ayers later lecturing Allocco a little.

The UNC offense turned one-dimensional when the second half began — get the ball low to Lubin. It wasn’t always smooth after the big man got the ball, but he got his share of points.

Withers hit his sixth 3-pointer in the first four minutes of the second half on another left-corner shot, and his record-setting seventh with about three minutes left in regulation. He was mobbed by his teammates after the game during a TV interview.

“We definitely let him hear about it and we got physical with him a little bit,” Powell said. “I told him all game to keep shooting the 3. He did. It was great.”

UNC coach Hubert Davis was constantly on his feet and urging his guys to tighten up on defense. The Irish shot 32.3% from the field and the UNC defense on Notre Dame’s dynamic Markus Burton was effective.

Davis first had Powell, he of the long wingspan, matched against Burton. Seth Trimble also drew the defensive assignment, as did Cadeau. The approach worked. Burton finished with 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting as the Irish, who edged Pittsburgh in first round, closed out a 15-18 season.

This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 4:37 PM with the headline "UNC basketball bolsters March Madness resume with win over Notre Dame in ACC Tournament."

Chip Alexander

The News & Observer

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In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.