Fort Worth, Texas – No. 8 North Carolina (26-9) defeated No. 1 Baylor (27-7) in overtime at Dickies Arena! After obliterating No. 9 Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, UNC traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, to take on the No. 1 seeded Baylor Bears. First-year UNC coach Hubert Davis set out on a mission to take down the defending national champions in the second round, which is precisely what his team did. After going down 4-0, the Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run to pull ahead by five. Most of the first half followed this pattern, and UNC ended the first 20 minutes of play up 42-29. A notable performance came from RJ Davis, who had 19 points. During the second half, North Carolina took over. Most notably, Brady Manek, the senior had 26 points with 10:47 left in the game. That’s when it all went wrong. While boxing out, Manek gave a hard elbow to the face of Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan. This resulted in a flagrant 2 foul and an ejection from the game. From then on, Baylor applied a full-court press to the Tar Heels. Caleb Love fouled out with six minutes left, which left UNC shorthanded for the remainder of the game. Sloppy inbounds passes and questionable officiating turned the 25-point lead into a three-point lead with 00:31 left in the game. Two missed free-throws by Armando Bacot and an and-one layup by James Akinjo tied the game at the end of regulation. Once the game went into overtime, nearly everyone thought that Baylor was going to win, but as RJ Davis said after the game, "I didn't want to go home. I mean, there was no time to be tired." The Tar Heels regrouped and kept their composure throughout overtime. UNC’s Dontrez Styles kicked off the extra period with a corner three-point basket. Leaky Black hit a contested layup to put North Carolina up by three. A stop on defense and a tough and-one layup from RJ Davis brought the lead to six. UNC held on to the advantage, winning 93-86. This game will go down in March Madness history as one of the biggest (almost) comebacks ever in the tournament. North Carolina has won seven of its last eight games; UNC is heating up at the right time, and watching how they perform during the rest of the tournament will be exciting. The Tar Heels will take on No. 4 UCLA (27-7) on Friday, March 5, at 9:39 PM. This matchup will be exciting, as both teams look to advance to the Elite Eight, and continue their winning streaks.
Original image: © Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports
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