Bacot's Second Half Dominance Powers North Carolina
CHAPEL HILL - RJ Davis has cemented himself as the frontrunner for the ACC Player of the Year award and Harrison Ingram has emerged as one of the best rebounders in the ACC.
But on Saturday, fifth-year big man Armando Bacot reminded both the ACC and college basketball why he’s an All-American.
Bacot recorded a game-high 25 points to go along with 12 rebounds, as No. 7 ranked North Carolina (20-6, 12-3 ACC) secured a 96-81 victory over Virginia Tech (14-11, 6-8 ACC) at the Smith Center.
“Coming into this game, I knew I wanted to have a great game,” said Bacot. “Me and RJ, we didn’t like what happened over at Syracuse. We did a great job of responding.”
Entering the break with a statline of six points and three rebounds, the Tar Heels possessed an 11-point lead, but made it a point to get back to their bread and butter of passing the ball into the paint.
“We wanted to get inside and make it a physical game and dominate the paint,” said Bacot.
With the Hokies trio of big men in foul trouble, the ball entered the paint to Bacot, and more often than not, ended with a made basket.
“We have Armando (Bacot), the best big in the country, why not give him the ball,” said Ingram. “He’s an All-American. We gave him the ball and they couldn’t stop him.”
Bacot was 8-of-11 from the field, en route to a season-high 11 made field goals, and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw in the second half, sealing off his defenders to create high-percentage looks at the rim.
”He outworked them. It is what it is,” said UNC Coach Hubert Davis. “You can call whatever play, you can design whatever half court set, [but] if the player is not going to work hard to catch the ball where we want them to catch it, it’s just a waste of time.”
North Carolina tallied 54 points in the paint, its second highest total of the season, with Bacot accounting for 16 of its 26 points in the paint in the final frame.
“We felt like it was an advantage for us to dominate points in the paint,” said Hubert Davis. “It was an emphasis, it’s been an emphasis for us every day since the beginning of the year. We talked about getting back to that for the last four or five games.”
Part of the play calling in the second half reverted back to the early non-conference slate, aiding Bacot’s performance, but getting out in transition like a traditional Tar Heel team was the driving force for his 19-point frame.
“We brought a few plays that we haven’t run since early on in the season out,” said Bacot. “A lot of it too is getting stops and getting into the secondary [break]. When we’re getting stops and I’m able to run like that, that’s our best offense.”
North Carolina finished with 12 assists in the final 20 minutes, including 10 from the backcourt, as its game plan was executed to near perfection on the offensive end.
Even when Bacot was not finding the bottom of the net and stuffing the stat sheet, he commanded attention from Virginia Tech, which opened up the floor for the Tar Heels’ shooters, including Cormac Ryan.
Ryan finished with four made 3-pointers on a season-high 57.1 percent from beyond the arc, crediting Bacot’s performance for his shot opportunities.
”That’s a part of the reason why playing with a guy like Armando is so great,” said Ryan. “Having the best big in the country and being able to draw that much attention, the guy still gets 25 and he makes our jobs as shooter and perimeter guys a lot easier.”
Bacot has recorded five straight double-doubles and shot 53% or better from the field in that span.
The three time All-ACC big man is once again averaging a double-double on the season and in the Tar Heels’ 20th win of the season, he impressed his head coach once again.
“Armando was fantastic offensively.”