Welcome back, Tar Heels!
A grateful and ecstatic capacity crowd at the Smith Center came out to cheer on a team in trouble with three straight losses and shrouded in controversy. The Tar Heels responded with what Hubert Davis called the “best game of the season” for his team and shooting star Caleb Love.
Carolina earned a much-need Quad 2 win over Clemson, which arrived tied for first in the ACC standings with Pitt and Miami and departed in fourth place with a 10-4 record. UNC is now 8-6 and deadlocked for seventh with Duke, which lost at Virginia on a controversial call the conference deemed incorrect upon further review.
Love, who had drawn negative attention after shooting inconsistently in losses to Pitt and Duke, drained six 3-pointers for 18 of his game-high 24 points in the exciting 91-71 win over the Tigers, the most points Carolina has scored in an ACC game this season that now stands 16-9 overall.
Clemson is well-coached by Brad Brownell and plays hard, but it is not particularly athletic. The Heels regained their speed, hops and pops with a large rebounding advantage most of the game and made 15 of 33 three-pointers, matching the most since the win over The Citadel back on December 13.
Perhaps with an eye toward 18th-ranked Miami, which plays here Monday at 7 in a quick turnaround, Davis used his bench for the most in a Power 5 game this season, and it responded with 25 points in 49 of the 200 minutes played.
However, the three top scorers were the bomb, combining for 59 points that included another double double by Armando Bacot (19 points and 11 boards) and won the battle against Clemson leading scorer P.J. Hall, who missed 7-plus minutes of the first half with three fouls. AB tallied 10 and 9 to go with Love’s 12 points on 3 of 4 shooting, all arc rainbows while driving enough to draw four fouls. UNC also made six free throws in the first half when only two were attempted by Clemson, the best foul-shooting team in the ACC (80…