The Wildcats improved to 8-2 with the win, while UNC fell to 7-3.
RJ Davis Carolina had 27 points and seven rebounds in a game-high 38 minutes. He became the first Tar Heel to be the team’s leading scorer in six consecutive games since 2017 ACC Player of the Year and consensus All-America First Team selection Justin Jackson.
cormac ryan He added 20 points for UNC, breaking out of a shooting slump with his best offensive performance of the season.
The Tar Heels had a strong second half, shooting 53.8 percent from the floor, but Kentucky scored 36 bench points to UNC’s 14 and allowed the Tar Heels 42 while forcing 17 turnovers. Established a rebound advantage of 32.
Carolina trailed for most of the game, making 6 of 7 field goals during one run to take its first lead at 72-71 with 5:15 left in the second half.
Kentucky fought back with a 6-0 run to take a 77-72 lead at the final media timeout with 3:44 left in the game.
With 11.9 seconds left, the Wildcats’ Rob Dillingham and Aaron Bradshaw each made one of two chances at the charity stripe, and the Tar Heels threw the ball away in an attempt to tie the game.
In a competitive first half, Kentucky built a 10-point lead in the first 10 minutes, but Carolina cut it back to just four points. A few minutes later, the Wildcats once again had a 10-point lead after UNC. Armando Bacot He picked up his second foul and went to the bench.
The Tar Heels held UK scoreless until the final 2:45 of the first half, finishing the period on an 8-0 run, making the score Kentucky 40-38 at intermission.
Early in the second half, Kentucky held its largest lead of the game at 55-43 until UNC fought back in the closing minutes.
first half
• Carolina shot poorly early, missing seven of its first eight 3-point tries and trailing by as many as 10 points by 9:36 into the game.
• The Tar Heels ended up shooting 41.9 percent from the field in the first half.
• Kentucky missed 11 of 12 FG attempts in one stretch and UNC cut a 10-point deficit to four at 26-22.
• Bacot committed two fouls in the first 13 minutes of the game, but was benched with only two points and one field goal try in the first 10 minutes.
• UK led 40-30, but UNC ended the first half on an 8-0 run and trailed 40-38 at intermission. Carolina held the Wildcats scoreless until 2:45 left in the first half.
Latter half
• Six minutes into the second half, the Wildcats cut the lead back to 12 points at 55-43.
• Carolina shot 53.8% as a team in the second half, but couldn’t top Kentucky’s 50% shooting after halftime.
Trivia and notes after the match
• Carolina is 6-4, including 1-4 against Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic.
• UNC is 2-2 against teams ranked in the Associated Press poll through the first 10 games of the season.
• Davis made his first eight free throw attempts of the game, extending his streak of consecutive free throw attempts to 41, tying the record set by UNC. Jeff Lebo Davis had a chance to break the record, but missed the mark for the 42nd time.
• Carolina is 25-18 against Kentucky and is the only school to play the Wildcats at least 10 times and have a win against UK. UNC won the series 13-8 in games played on neutral grounds.
• cormac ryanHe had made 8-of-28 (28.6 percent) from the floor in his past three games, making 5-of-12 on Saturday and 8-of-12 overall, including 3-pointers. That included 4 of 7 point shots.
• Davis becomes the 33rd Tar Heel to eclipse the 1,500 point mark in career scoring, passing Tyler Zeller and Scott Williams for 31st place in school history.
• Davis leads UNC in points in six consecutive games, becoming the first Tar Heel to do so since Justin Jackson in 2017.
• After Connecticut outrebounded Carolina by 10 points in the Dec. 5 game against UNC, Kentucky outrebounded the Tar Heels 42-32.
next
Carolina returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 20, in Charlotte at the Jumpman Invitational against Oklahoma. The Tar Heels’ next home game will be against Charleston Southern on December 29th. Four of his next five UNC contests will be held away from Chapel Hill.
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