‘It was time’: UNC relishes moment against Michigan, rides second-half wave to blowout

CHAPEL HILL — From the put-back that had Leaky Black flexing his arms and screaming in booming celebration to the deep 3-pointer that had Caleb Love grinning and wagging his tongue with supreme confidence, North Carolina poured it on Wednesday night.

The Tar Heels rode a second-half wave to a 72-51 blowout of No. 24 Michigan in this ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchup at the Smith Center, rolling to their most complete victory under new coach Hubert Davis.

Love pumped in 22 points while delivering an all-around effort, Dawson Garcia scored 14 points, and Armando Bacot collected 11 points and 14 rebounds as North Carolina (5-2) turned its 29-27 halftime lead into a runaway and moved ahead by 25 during the second half.

“We heard all the chatter about our defense and about our team, and we took it personal,” Love said. “This was like a statement game for us, not because we’re playing Michigan, but just because a lot of people have been talking about how bad we are or how bad we play on defense. So it was a statement game. We’re going to build off this and we’re going to keep going.”

Moussa Diabate’s 13 points and Eli Brooks’ 11 points topped the contributions for coach Juwan Howard’s Wolverines (4-3), who struggled throughout from the field (35.1-percent shooting on the night) and ultimately got flattened with Love draining four 3-pointers and Bacot reducing Michigan standout center Hunter Dickinson to a 7-foot-1, 260-pound non-factor.

Bacot said the Tar Heels “had this game marked off” in eager anticipation of facing their next name-brand opponent in a meaningful moment, since the team’s winless weekend in the Hall of Fame Tip-off Tournament at the Mohegan Sun, where nationally ranked Purdue and Tennessee disposed of North Carolina on Nov. 20-21.

“The Mohegan Sun, it left a bad taste in our mouths,” Bacot said, “because we know we’re a lot more talented than that. Our fans deserve more, coaches and everything.

“Practice, it was tough. We had to do some soul searching and we had to figure out, do we really want to be a great team or a good team. I feel like we took a step in the right direction. We all were just pretty upset and (ticked) off about it. Some of the things that were said about us as a team, we didn’t like it at all and we kind of channeled all that and we knew it was time.”

Ken Pomeroy’s extensive college basketball database rated North Carolina’s defeat of visiting Michigan here as the Tar Heels’ best win since March 9, 2019, a victory over rival Duke from three seasons ago. North Carolina’s opener in Atlantic Coast Conference league play comes next, at Georgia Tech on Sunday.

“We had our best practice of the year (Tuesday),” Garcia said, “and so we all knew what we were going to come in here and do. And I don’t see us looking back at all.”

Here are more takeaways from Wednesday night in Chapel Hill:

Armando Bacot measures up in a big spot

The game’s tipping point might’ve been a sequence early in the second half, when Dickinson picked up his third and fourth fouls 12 seconds apart on the same North Carolina possession. That sent Michigan’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder on the season to the bench for nearly 10½ minutes of game time.

Bacot converted a three-point play to give the Tar Heels a 39-24 lead upon Dickinson’s exit. When he returned with 8:03 remaining, Love just had dunked on drive to push the lead to 53-38 and North Carolina had gained separation.

The 6-10 Bacot and 7-1 Dickinson didn’t need any introductions down low, having played for the same AAU program — Team Takeover of Washington, D.C. — as teenagers on the grassroots circuit.

Dickinson entered Wednesday night averaging 14.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He had four points, five rebounds, zero assists and three turnovers against North Carolina, the foul trouble and Bacot’s presence effectively neutralizing him.

“I needed to go out there and show I’m that elite defender that I know I am,” Bacot said. “I was being physical and being in the right position. I’ve been playing with him since the seventh grade, so I know a lot of the stuff that he likes to do. I know when he catches on the right block, he’s trying to get to that left hand jump hook. It’s like playing at the park when it’s playing against him, because we’ve been playing against each other for so long.”

Caleb Love’s all-around performance

Love’s third 20-point game of the young season featured plenty of highlight qualities, with four 3-pointers, two dunks and attacking drives off pick-and-roll situations. The sophomore guard added four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

During the final seconds of the first half, Love beat the shot clock by burying a 3-pointer over Michigan’s Terrance Williams II, putting North Carolina ahead at intermission. Later, Love supplied eight straight points for the Tar Heels, a second-half burst capped by back-to-back 3s that increased the lead to 59-40 and had the smiling Love hanging out his tongue in enjoyment.

“I’ve just got to have fun with it,” Love said. “I’ve just got to lose myself into the team, and that’s what Coach Davis has been telling me, just lose myself into the team and lose myself into the game. That’s something also Coach Roy (Williams) told me. I’ve just been doing that and having fun with my teammates.”

Davis commended the defensive effort Love turned in against Brooks, whose 11 points were scored on 5-for-11 shooting from the field. Brooks arrived leading Michigan in scoring at 15.7 points per game.

“Caleb had the challenge and the assignment to defend him pretty much most of the game,” Davis said. “So it wasn’t just his scoring. It was his defense, it was his ability to get teammates open, his passing. Caleb played an all-around game.”

‘Best practice that I can remember’

North Carolina returned from a seven-day break between games Wednesday night, and Davis said he could sense a dialed-in vibe emanating from his team the day prior during practice.

“We had the best practice that I can remember this year,” he said. “The energy and the effort on the defensive end was great. On the offensive end, we were sharing the basketball and we were excited about other teammates’ success. It was a great practice. It was hard, it was competitive, but it was also fun. We played together as a team, and they did the same thing (Wednesday) night against Michigan.”

After three straight games with more turnovers than assists, North Carolina committed a season-low six turnovers against Michigan. The 21-point margin of victory marked the Tar Heels’ largest in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge since a 98-63 beatdown of Michigan State in December 2008.

“I felt like the guys wanted another opportunity against a big-time team and to go out there and put a full game together,” Davis said. “Win or lose, we wanted our energy and our effort and our attention to detail and our defense to improve. It’s something that we’ve worked hard on.”

Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball relishes moment against Michigan, delivers blowout win