Live Blog: Louisville at North Carolina

Tar Heels face Cardinals in battle for fourth place

Despite the struggles this season, North Carolina has a chance to enter the final two weeks of the regular season on track to get one of the ACC Tournament’s coveted “double byes”.

The Tar Heels are currently tied with Clemson and Syracuse for fifth place in the ACC with a 7-5 conference record. A win over visiting Louisville on Saturday night would leapfrog the Heels into fourth place, and the top four teams won’t play until day three of the tournament.

UNC is coming off of a 20-point win over late schedule addition Northeastern, who responded to a Twitter request by the Tar Heels to schedule a midweek game in the Smith Center. The Heels are unbeaten at home at 7-0. They’ve won five of the last seven to move to 13-7 on the year and into consideration for an NCAA Tournament bid. The Heels have split their last four games, however, with road losses at Clemson and UVA.

Louisville has hit a skid after starting the year 9-1, 4-0 in the ACC. Starting in mid-January, the Cardinals have lost three of five to drop to 11-4, 6-3.

The Cardinals will be playing their first game in 19 days after a rash of positive COVID tests, including coach Chris Mack. Reportedly, Louisville had just two scholarship players available for a scheduled Feb. 16 game against Syracuse which was eventually postponed.

The Cardinals have confirmed that they won’t have everyone available Saturday night in the Dean Dome, but they haven’t released any information on who will or won’t play.

“We have a conflict right now with our medical people and the powers-that-be with their medical people. So right now I don't know who's going to be available for the game tomorrow," Mack said in his Friday press conference.

The only player known not to make the trip was sophomore Aidan Igiehon, who is suffering from a non-COVID illness. The 6-foot-10 forward would have been helpful in matching UNC’s size and depth inside.  

Louisville has 10 players participating in warmups. That's out of 17 players listed on the team roster. So, outside of Igiehon, it looks like six guys are out due to testing and tracing 

Tonight's officials: Ron Groover, John Higgins, Jeb Hartness

Our sister site Louisville Report is  ... well ... reporting ... that Josh Nickelberry is out, and that the five Louisville walk-ons didn't make the trip to Chapel Hill. So the Cardinals will be about as close to full strength as they could have hoped given the position the team was in a few days ago. 

Same starters as usual for the Heels: Black, Love, Walton, Bacot, Brooks. 

Very impressive play by Leaky Black. He stole a lob pass at the rim to break up a Louisville two-on-one, then fed Kerwin Walton for a three. UNC up early 3-2. 

Bacot & Brooks each with four early points as UNC opens a seven-point lead.

Brooks gets the offensive rebound and is fouled going back up. That's the second on Louisville's Dre Davis. We hit the under 16 (at 14:18) with UNC up 14-9. 

Brooks missed both free throws. Sharpe got the offensive rebound, missed a putback, then missed both of his free throws. Empty possession for Carolina, despite plenty of scoring opportunities.

Brooks hits 1-of-2 FT next time down. UNC is currently 1-of-6 from the line. 

By the way, if you're following the live stat feed, it is incorrect. It gave Sharpe credit for a putback he missed. UNC has 17 points, not 19. 

They've corrected the feed. A foul on Louisville in the backcourt takes us to the under 12. UNC up 17-15. 

UNC has missed 9-of-10 shots and Louisville ties it at 17. 

Kessler 1-of-2 from the line. UNC now 2-of-8, leaving a lot of points on the floor. 

Lot of standing around for UNC on that possession, but Walton bails them out with a three. 

UNC has 10 offensive rebounds. Louisville has nine total rebounds. 

Scrum for a loose ball gets called a held ball. At the under 8, UNC leads 23-19. Carolina in danger of wasting a pretty good half of basketball by letting Louisville hang around. 

Potential trouble spot for Carolina (as Brooks misses another free throw), Louisville averages 17 three-point attempts per game. Currently just 1-for-3. 

Back-to-back threes by Walton put UNC up 10. Tar Heels doing exactly what they need to late in the half (after I chided them for letting Louisville hang around) 

Louisville doubling up UNC on points from free throws, despite taking six to UNC's nine. 

Kessler calls time after getting a steal on a deflected pass. UNC very active on defense in recent minutes. This should be the under four, with UNC up 35-25

Ca-Love gets in the passing lane and pick sixes one to make it a 14-point lead. 

RJ Davis for three. Louisville airballs a three. And-one for Sharpe. Suddenly, it's a 17-point game. 

Oof. UNC with a steal and Love dunk at the buzzer, and the Heels take a 48-29 lead into the locker room. This was a four-point game at the under 8. Then the Heels just floored the accelerator. 

Carolina just bullying the Ville inside. 26-16 on points in the paint, 9-0 on second chance points. And Heels also hit 6-of-13 threes. 

After passing Michael Jordan last game, Kerwin Walton has now made more threes as a Tar Heel than Jerry Stackhouse

Carlik Jones with three straight steals. Led to one layup, one blocked layup by Love and one deflection out of bounds. 

Louisville has missed its first four three-pointers of the half. Leaky Black commits a foul to send us to the under 16, UNC leads 52-35. 

Louisville has taken 13 shots this half to UNC's six, but they've each made five of them. 

Sharpe converts his second off-balanced, falling-down layup of the game. 

It was an and-one. Sharpe now 0-for-4 from the line, Brooks 1-of-5, UNC 2-of-11. 

6-0 UNC run puts this game at a 23-point margin, 64-41. Louisville calls time, 12:36 to go. 

UNC is 8-of-9 this half and has made six straight from the field. 

Louisville's Slazinski commits his third foul. Three other Cardinals have two. At the under 12, it's 64-44 Heels. 

Bacot with six quick points to help spark an 8-0 UNC run. It's a 28-point game. 

Withers picks up his third foul. At the under eight, UNC leads 72-44 and is going to the line. 

Louisville has lost its three ACC games by a combined 23 points. Currently down 28. UNC has won its seven ACC games by a combined 40 points. Currently up 28. 

Kessler on the floor and Walton gets blindsided by a screen. Roy Williams criticized Kessler a couple games ago for not calling out screens 

Davis helped off the floor and is being looked at by Louisville medical staff. Maybe a hip, based on where he's looking? 

Davis rubbing his thigh, so it might just be a cramp. Trainer doesn't seem too concerned. 

Kessler with back-to-back buckets. 12-0 UNC run. Score is 89-50. Time out Louisville just under four minutes to play. 

KJ Smith gets clobbered by a screen. And yes, Kessler is in the game. 

Not sure if biscuits is still a thing, but Heels have missed three layups that would put them over 100. 

Sterling Manley at the scorers table, but Roy Williams sends him back to the bench. 

Heels dribble out a 99-54 blowout win to move into fourth place.