“Dig deeper” has become the catchphrase for the North Carolina men’s basketball team.
The two players dug a lot of holes in Wednesday night’s 88-79 win over Wake Forest.
Junior guard RJ Davis led both teams in scoring with 22 points in the second half to pass the 1000th career point mark. That performance was complemented by a career-high 18 points from alumnus forward Leaky Black, who had one of the best shooting performances of the season so far.
UNC and Wake Forest traded leads 20 times throughout the game, but the Tar Heels never pulled away from Wake Forest. Alongside RJ Davis and Black, senior forward Armando Bako tallied 21 points while first-year Sestrimble scored a career-high 11 points to win.
Black topped his 6.7 scoring average early on by knocking down three 3-pointers in the first seven minutes of the game.
“Believe it or not, I’ve been doing it since I got here,” said Black. It’s always there, it’s just a matter of going out and doing it, just playing freely. ”
Black scored 14 points in the first half on just six shots, leading UNC to the break.
“I’m so proud of Leaky,” said RJ Davis. “I told him he looked like Steph there when he was shooting threes.”
Black said the team used the disappointment of last week’s loss to Pittsburgh.
“It’s a matter of me stepping up and holding the end of my contract and playing the way Leaky Black needs to play,” he said. “It’s a matter of taking advantage of your opportunity. If I see you going inside, I’m going to keep shooting it.”
As one of the oldest players on the team, Black plays a sort of ‘big brother’ role, playing everyone’s mental game by instilling confidence in the younger players and encouraging them to ‘dig deeper’. He said the focus was on containment.
“Every time you say, ‘Dig deeper,’ in a meeting, it’s like a switch,” he said. “We go through these mental blunders and we hit timeouts. It’s like, ‘We have to dig deep, we have to dig deep.’ ”
Black did his own digging and put in a career-high performance to prove it. After breaking the record with two free throws early in the second half, he didn’t get the chance to set a new record until he made a steal followed by a crowd-pleasing dunk in the final 14 seconds of the game. .
Despite Black’s explosive first half, the Tar Heels were trailed by one at half-time. Luckily, his energy proved contagious.
From the start of the second half, RJ Davis mimicked Black’s first-half start, quickly hitting three jumpers and a layup in the first four minutes.
“I feel like when you attack the basket and hit an open shot, that sort of thing opens the door for us, brings the energy and brings us together,” RJ Davis said.
In the second half alone, RJ Davis scored 22 points and went 4-6 from behind the arc. Aside from the severity of his offense, he was dynamic on defense, recording 3 steals and 4 of his rebounds in the game.
Like Black, RJ Davis felt as though the team had left things undone in their previous game against Pittsburgh.
RJ Davis said, “There was a moment that should have closed and I felt relaxed. But today I dug deeper.”
With eight minutes remaining, Baccott stole the ball at the top of the key and assisted RJ Davis with a 3 in the third of the half to give UNC a six-point lead. This is the biggest half ever. From there, the Tar Heels picked up momentum and dominated the final minutes.
UNC head coach Hubert Davis said, “We need to dig deeper with the discipline and the details, what we’re talking about, what you’re doing in practice every day, and with your effort and energy and enthusiasm. “Our bro did it.”
@dth sports | |sports@dailytarheel.com
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