UNC basketball comes up short. How No. 5 UConn held off the No. 9 Tar Heels in New York

Defending national champion UConn seemed to do everything right Tuesday in an 87-76 win over North Carolina in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.

The No. 9 Tar Heels (7-2, 1-0 ACC) had trouble inside against the No. 5 Huskies (8-1, 0-0 Big East), who were coming off a tough loss to No. 2 Kansas.

UNC kept the game within single digits for most of the game — there was one tie and three lead changes in the first half — but a late-game flurry from the Huskies doomed the Carolina comeback. The Heels still lead the all-time series, 5-2.

Senior guard RJ Davis led North Carolina with 26 points, including 19 in the second half. Forward Armando Bacot finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.

Here are three takeaways from the Heels’ loss.

UNC missed too many free throw attempts

The Tar Heels knew attacking the rim and drawing contact would be a key factor in the game, and they drew plenty of fouls — 18 — with four Huskies picking up at least three personals.

Bacot went to the line 26 seconds after the break, sending UConn’s Donovan Clingan to the bench with his third. Huskies guard Cam Spencer picked up a technical, while officials called guard Tristen Newton and forward Samson Johnson for their third fouls in the following four minutes.

But, UNC didn’t make enough of its chances, hitting just 13 of 22 from the line — sub-60%, a season low. The team’s previous low was a 15-for-23 (65%) outing in the opener against Radford, but it made up for it in other areas.

One potential reason for the dip: Bacot was just 5-for-10 from the line. After the game, he said he felt something off in his knee after his first free throw attempt, which impacted him the entire contest.

“When I was going to get in that bending motion, I was just not really able to bend my knees,” Bacot said. “It was a tough one, but luckily we’ve got 12 days or something like that to prepare for Kentucky, so I’ll be fine.”

Carolina rebounding fell short

Head coach Hubert Davis said Tuesday he thought the team would have success if it led the rebounding effort, because it either helps provide more offensive possessions, or gets the team out in transition.

There were times when that happened. Bacot recorded a fastbreak dunk early in the first half after a rebound on the defensive end. The graduate student also crashed the glass for a put-back dunk following a missed free throw by forward Harrison Ingram.

That didn’t last the entire game, though. The Tar Heels fought, but couldn’t keep up with the Huskies.

UNC finished with 33 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end. UConn had 43 rebounds and 11 on the offensive side.

“I just want to be a better rebounding team,” Hubert Davis said. “I think going into the game, we were a little bit under plus-seven rebounds. I want to be at least over plus-10 rebounding. Rebounding is the biggest key.”

Tar Heels have a lot of heart

Every team, at some point, faces a loss after which it talks about how other teams could’ve given up but they kept trying to come back. As stereotypical that sounds, the Tar Heels really never were completely out of the game Tuesday.

They were passionate and talked smack with the Huskies. Hubert Davis notably showed a lot of emotion toward the end of the first half. They came back from 13 down with 13 minutes remaining, cutting the UConn lead to five, and were taking shots as the clock wound down.

Anyone watching the game could see UNC’s refusal to quit.

“It just shows that when you know we hit adversity, we’re gonna get up and overcome somehow, some way,” RJ Davis said. “That’s one thing about this team: we’re resilient, and it’s gonna take a lot for us to go down.”