UNC Basketball loses second consecutive conference game to Wake Forest 67-66

SPORTS

CHAPEL HILL–The Heels fell just short again with a one-point loss to the Demon Deacons in an ACC conference game. After dropping a home game to Stanford 72-71 North Carolina sits at 12-8 overall and only 5-3 in conference play.

It’s a tough way to lose: back-to-back with one-point losses.

This Carolina team has not had a lot of offensive cohesion and has been carried by the dominant performance of Freshman phenom Ian Jackson.

The young guard has recently broken his way into the starting lineup and is averaging almost 15 points per game, making 48.3% of his shots from the field and 33.3% from three-point territory.

He has proven to be the Heels’ most reliable scoring option. Yet last night he could only muster seven points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field.

R.J. Davis and Cadeau dazzled as Davis shot 50% from the field while scoring 21 points and Elliot Cadeau continued to make strides as a playmaker with a whopping 13 assists.

Those stats are great but the real difference in the game overall were the team stats.The Demon Deacons shot almost 78% from the charity stripe on 17 more attempts than the Heels. Carolina only shot 60% and was outrebounded by eight.

The things great teams do to win were not achieved last night by Carolina.

With about 4 minutes to go the Heels were only down by four but they could not put together consistent play to come back. R.J. Davis hit a last-second three-point shot to close the gap to a single point but it would not do much good as they could not get the possession back as time expired and the Heels fell to the fifth spot in ACC standings.

The Tar Heels play next this Saturday at 2:15 in a home tipoff against the Boston College Eagles.

Thomas Hicks is a journalist with video, PR, and writing experience who studied at UNC and the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Thomas is always looking for work and the next story! He loves working with his camera or with his pen. This reporter can be contacted at thomasjhicks55@gmail.com, LinkedIn: Thomas Hicks and X: ThomasJ_H