Down to the wire! UNC escapes Miami basketball with late shot from Andrew Platek.
Andrew Platek’s baseline floater with 3.6 seconds left lifted North Carolina to a 67-65 win over Miami.
The Tar Heels (7-4, 2-2 ACC) rallied from down 10 in the second half in a game where it struggled to find any offensive continuity. For the second straight game, the Heels managed to pull out a victory despite shooting less than 40 percent from the field in both halves. (They shot 31 percent in the first half and 37 percent in the second.)
“We just kept fighting,” Platek said. “Although we didn’t play well, we had the heart to keep pushing. We dug ourselves a hole and had to dig ourselves out.”
Carolina trailed 61-55 with 5:32 left when it went on an 8-0 run powered by 3-pointers from an unlikely pair. Leaky Black and Caleb Love entered the game shooting 20 and 16 percent, respectively, from 3-point range. Black’s shot may have been the biggest of the game because it put the Heels ahead 63-61.
“There were three big shots for us in the game,” UNC coach Roy Williams said, alluding to the 3s by Black and Love before Platek’s game-winner.
Coupled with the Heels 66-65 win over Notre Dame, it marked the first time they have won consecutive games by two points or less since beating Kentucky 75-73 and Oregon 77-76 in their run to the 2017 NCAA title.
Black led the Heels with 16 points. Kerwin Walton’s 13 and Day’Ron Sharpe’s 12 were the only other scorers in double figures.
For Miami (4-5, 0-4), playing without injured starters Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty, it was another heartbreaking loss. Each of the Canes’ last three losses have been in one-possession games.
Carolina had a rough first half, turning the ball over 11 times and only making nine baskets. Yet, almost miraculously, it led 32-30 at halftime. Fortunately for the Heels, Miami was pretty careless with the ball too with eight first-half turnovers.
And One
Junior Leaky Black has quietly emerged as a steady scorer for the Heels over the past three games and it culminated with a career-high 16 points. Black made four 3-pointers after he entered Tuesday’s game having made just three all season. He’s now shooting 14-of-23 (60 percent) from the floor over the past three games.
Lane Violation
The Heels had outscored opponents by an average of eight in points in the paint. The Canes decimated that advantage. Miami scored basket after basket by simply attacking the paint as Carolina defenders offered little resistance. Often the Heels were just out of position or late rotating to help. The Canes finished with a 32-24 advantage in points in the paint, which marked just the second time this season UNC was outscored in that category. Georgia Tech edged the Heels 24-22 in the Yellow Jackets’ 72-67 win.
ICYMI
Carolina started its fourth different starting lineup in the last four games. R.J. Davis replaced Love as a starter from the Notre Dame win on Saturday. The remaining four players -- Walton, Black, Armando Bacot and Sharpe -- stayed the same. Alternating Davis and Love at point guard could be a pattern that continues moving forward. Since they started the first eight games of the season together in the backcourt, Williams hasn’t paired Love and Davis together in the same lineup much.
Making sense of the numbers
Senior forward Garrison Brooks is officially in a slump. Through the first eight games of the season, while he was in the starting lineup, he averaged 11.5 points while shooting 47.4 percent from the field. The last three games with Brooks coming off the bench, he’s averaged just 6.6 points while shooting 7-21 from the field.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Down to the wire! UNC escapes Miami basketball with late shot from Andrew Platek.."