CHAPEL HILL - With 14:03 remaining in the first half of North Carolina’s 94-79 loss to Alabama on Wednesday night, Tar Heels guard Ian Jackson connected on a 3-point attempt to trim the Crimson Tide lead to one at 13-12.
It marked the Tar Heels’ second made three of the game, but preceded a back-breaking drought from beyond the arc, one that was bookended by another Jackson make over a half of basketball later in a 94-79 UNC loss, moving its losing streak to three games.
Over that 26-minute span of gametime, UNC missed 16 consecutive 3-point attempts, as six different Tar Heels failed to convert a shot from deep.
With exactly eight minutes to go in the contest, Jackson ended the dry spell with one of his three made threes.
He was the lone North Carolina player to convert multiple perimeter shots on the evening, as the Tar Heels finished a combined 5-for-28.
“I could probably say that some of our threes weren’t the threes that we wanted,” said Jackson. “I think we just missed shots, man.”
In reality, the affliction from beyond the arc may be worse than the numbers indicate. UNC made two of its last three shots from long range, turning a 3-for-25 performance into 5-for-28 with the final result already determined.
UNC attempted 13 threes in the first half, making two in the opening 20 minutes. It bested that number by just one in the second half on two more attempts.
UNC’s 17.9% outing against the Crimson Tide was its worst shooting performance from three since February 13, 2023, when the Tar Heels shot just 2-for-23 (8.7%) in a win over Notre Dame.
It marked the first time this season that North Carolina shot under 30 percent from three, as its starting five combined to shoot 2-for-21 from distance and its starting backcourt just 2-for-17.
All-American guard RJ Davis’ 1-for-11 outing highlighted the shooting woes for the Tar Heels.
Davis is now shooting 15-for-62, or 24.2 percent, from three-point range on the season, a glaring struggle that has carried over from UNC’s Sweet 16 loss to Alabama a season ago. He was 4-for-20 from the floor and 0-for-9 from three-point range in the defeat to end the Tar Heels’ season.
In three career games against the Crimson Tide, all losses, Davis is 19-for-68 from the floor and has connected on just three of his 26 three-point attempts.
UNC is now 1-3 this season when he makes one or fewer threes, a clear barometer for its success.
While his 15 made threes over the first eight games are a team-high, Davis has attempted 35 more threes than the next closest Tar Heel in Seth Trimble, who has 13 makes on 27 attempts.
Trimble was just 1-for-4 from three on Wednesday, while Elliot Cadeau failed to convert on all three of his attempts.
When it comes to UNC’s perimeter struggles, two things can be true. The Tar Heels’ poor-shooting could be an anomaly on the season, but it’s a common occurrence from its backcourt against the Crimson Tide.
Although Carolina sits at 4-4 on the season and are currently riding a three-game losing streak, Jackson is confident that the makes will come for the Tar Heels.
“Shots will fall. Makes and misses can’t determine how we play as a unit, but shots will fall,” said the freshman guard. “We’re gonna go into film and see which shots we want [and] which shots we don’t and figure it out.”
For UNC, you have to go back 653 days and 51 games to find a performance from three-point range as poorly as Wednesday night against Alabama. And while the Tar Heels can only hope it’s much longer between the next shooting struggle, they have only three days to figure out which shots they want and which shots they don’t, as they host Georgia Tech on Saturday in the ACC opener.
