North Carolina defeats Wake Forest 88-79

R.J. Davis led the Heels with 27 points on 5-7 from behind the three-point line

A full game story with quotes and analysis is available here.

Behind 32 points in the paint and 30 points off Wake Forest turnovers, North Carolina took down the Deacs at home Wednesday night.

Carolina guard R.J. Davis led the way for the Heels, dropping 27 points, converting on five of seven threes.

In a back-and-forth first half, Wake Forest relied on a rejuvenated Daivien Williamson (10 points in half) from behind the three-point line, while the Tar Heels were buoyed by Leaky Black (14 points, 5-6 FG).

After trading baskets to open the game, North Carolina embarked on a 8-0 run to take a five-point lead. But, right when the Deacs looked to be losing grip of the game, they responded to get within a point of the Heels.

After extending the lead to as many as seven midway through the first half, Wake Forest forward Bobi Klintman scored six-straight points.

Then, with several clutch shots by Damari Monsanto, the Deacs scored 13 of the final 19 points to retake a one-point lead at halftime.

Both teams traded buckets for the opening five minutes of the second half — neither the Deacs nor the Heels held a lead of more than two. But then, a Wake Forest 5-0 run, kickstarted by a Monsanto three-pointer, gave them their largest lead of the night to that point.

But, then North Carolina charged back with a Davis three-pointer, an Armando Bacot layup and four points from Seth Trimble. The Heels scored nine of the game’s last 11 points leading into the media timeout, taking a one-point lead.

Trailing by one, a layup by Trimble and an emphatic dunk by Bacot forced Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes to call a timeout with 8:33 remaining in regulation.

Then, a gut-check three-pointer by Davis extended the lead to six, the largest for the Heels since midway through the first half.

With six minutes remaining, Wake Forest began to make several sloppy turnovers, and North Carolina extended their lead to eight.

A Davis three with just over three minutes left seemed to be the dagger for Wake Forest.

Wake Forest:

27-56 FG (48.2%), 10-21 3PT (47.6%), 33 reb, 14 TOs

North Carolina:

30-58 FG (51.7%), 9-24 3PT (37.5%), 27 reb, 9 TOs

Key Player Stats:

R.J. Davis (UNC): 25 pts, 9-13 FG, 5-7 3PT

Leaky Black (UNC): 18 pts, 6-8 FG, 3-5 3PT

Daivien Williamson (WF): 10]2 pts, 4-7 FG, 2-3 3PT

Tyree Appleby (WF): 16 pts, 5-15 FG, 3-5 3PT, 9 ast

Damari Monsanto (WF): 17 pts, 6-11 FG, 3-8 3PT, 7 reb, 3 TOs

Armando Bacot (UNC): 21 pts, 7-11 FG, 8 reb

Caleb Love (UNC): 7 pts, 3-14 FG

Andrew Carr (WF): 16 pts, 7-11 FG, 9 reb, 5 ast

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