Defense-minded UNC, playing in its home away from home, overwhelms Oklahoma in Charlotte
A Christmastime dose of the Queen City was all it took to make North Carolina feel like kings again.
The Tar Heels, who had lost two straight games, came to Charlotte on Wednesday night and whipped the No. 7 team in the country.
No. 11 UNC’s convincing, 81-69 win over previously undefeated Oklahoma before 16,344 fans at the Jumpman Invitational was in no small part helped by a crowd that was officially neutral but in practice far from that.
Almost the entire arena — borrowed from its usual tenant, the Charlotte Hornets, for this event — was clad in light blue.
Among the Tar Heel royalty in attendance: Former basketball coach Roy Williams and soon-to-be NFL draft pick Drake Maye. A pregame moment of silence was held for Tar Heel basketball legend Eric Montross, who died Sunday of cancer, at age 52.
And any call that went against the Tar Heels was greeted by vociferous booing, as was the brief appearance of someone wearing a Duke jersey on the video scoreboard.
Given that Charlotte has long served as a second home for UNC, it’s no surprise that the Tar Heels have won 86% of their Charlotte games in history (a 166-27 all-time record, to be precise).
When asked if he felt Charlotte felt like a home away from home to his team, UNC coach Hubert Davis said: “Yes, I do. I love playing here. My dad grew up here. My parents went to Johnson C. Smith, so this is really like home to me, and it’s home to the Tar Heels. So we feel very comfortable here.
“That being said,” Davis continued, “even though having our fans here and being in North Carolina was a huge benefit to us, Oklahoma is a great basketball team. And we had to play well and make plays throughout the game to put us in a position to beat such a good team.”
The Tar Heels did that, playing with more defensive energy and sizzle than they have had for most of the season.
Oklahoma (10-1) came in undefeated but seemed overwhelmed, falling behind 12-2 early and never completely recovering. The Sooners had 18 turnovers and only six assists and also had six shots blocked, including three in a row in one ferocious stretch.
UNC (8-3) had lost its previous two games, to UConn and Kentucky. In this game, the Tar Heel players later agreed, their defense did a lot of the damage.
Said Oklahoma coach Porter Moser of the Tar Heels: “They were suffocating. They were guarding the dribbler and protecting the rim. We weren’t connected like we needed to be.”
Technically, Oklahoma was classified as the home team, but that was in name only.
“The crowd was great,” point guard R.J. Davis said. “It was a home game for us.”
Davis had a team-high 23 points, five assists, three steals and, importantly, zero turnovers. Some of his teammates were later asked what Davis did for the squad.
“First of all, he’s a straight-up bucket,” Harrison Ingram said.
The UNC men improved to 2-0 in Jumpman games. UNC edged Michigan last year (before a crowd that was slightly larger than this one) and will play Florida in 2024. The Jumpman Invitational is in the second year of a three-year contract in Charlotte and each year features the four original Jordan Brand-sponsored college teams — both men’s and women’s versions.
A lot of things worked out for the Tar Heels Wednesday, who even got a rare three-pointer from Armando Bacot (14 points, eight rebounds).
Bacot, who came in 2-for-18 from three-point range in his five-year career with UNC, made the third one of his college career. He shot it from the right corner in the second half.
Said Bacot: “Yeah, Coach might not like this, but I said to myself today that I was gonna hit a three. So I made sure I… got one up. And I shot it confidently, so I knew I was gonna make it.”
Bacot’s 3-pointer drew one of the loudest cheers of the night from the partisan UNC crowd, which went home happy, as did a Tar Heel team that needed a win, and found one.
