‘Everybody eating’: UNC shares success, bolts away from Georgia Tech to roll in ACC opener

ATLANTA — North Carolina got a number of contributors involved and made new coach Hubert Davis’s debut in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball a shared success.

RJ Davis delivered 23 points and the Tar Heels dished out a season-high total of assists while bolting away during the second half to defeat Georgia Tech 79-62 in the league opener for both teams Sunday at McCamish Pavilion.

Caleb Love supplied 17 points, Armando Bacot collected 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Brady Manek added 15 points off the bench, as North Carolina backed up its blowout of nationally ranked Michigan from four nights prior with a convincing victory on the road to get started in ACC play.

“The toughness and the grit, the will and the want to,” Hubert Davis said of the winning qualities that stood out from his team on this day. “One of the things that we talked about all week was validating our performance on Wednesday with a good performance here on Sunday, and I was very proud of them.”

RJ Davis and Love, the sophomore guards, turned in a comprehensive effort. They combined for 40 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, and hit 7 of 11 launches from beyond the 3-point arc. Altogether, the visiting Tar Heels (6-2) recorded 21 assists on their 31 field goals during the course of the afternoon, and connected on 65.5-percent shooting from the field in the second half.

“If we’re assisting the ball like that,” the power forward Bacot said, “it’s just like a vintage Carolina team, those Coach (Roy) Williams teams, Coach (Dean) Smith. Just moving the ball, sharing, everybody playing good, everybody eating. When everybody’s eating and everybody’s happy, it’s hard to beat us.”

North Carolina withstood a 13-0 run by Georgia Tech (5-3) in the first half while falling behind by nine, and ultimately responded with a 22-4 burst to beak open the game in the second half, a surge capped by RJ Davis’s catch-and-shoot 3-pointer off a feed from Love — a juncture by which the Tar Heels led 60-43 and had tallied assists on 18 of their 24 baskets.

North Carolina avoided an avalanche from Georgia Tech standout Michael Devoe, who arrived averaging 25 points per game and leading the NCAA in scoring. Devoe had poured in 37 points, 26 points and 33 points during the Yellow Jackets’ previous three games, but the Tar Heels kept him from an explosive outing behind the defense of Leaky Black and Anthony Harris.

Devoe scored 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field. Khalid Moore and Dallan “Deebo” Coleman chipped in 13 points apiece for Georgia Tech. The game was tied 31-31 at halftime and the Yellow Jackets briefly led during the first four minutes of the second half, before North Carolina asserted control.

Hubert Davis joined Frank McGuire, Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge and Matt Doherty in winning both their first ACC games and first ACC road games as coach of the Tar Heels. Here are more takeaways from Sunday in Atlanta:

RJ Davis ‘already knew it was good’

RJ Davis pumped in 13 of his 23 points in the second half, and didn’t miss a shot from the field (4-for-4, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range) or the free throw line (2-for-2) after halftime.

“It felt good when the ball left my hands,” he said of the three 3s he drained during the second half. “I already knew it was good.”

Davis finished 8-for-11 from the field and 4-for-6 from long distance. It marked his second 20-point of the season and his college career, after a 26-point effort last month in North Carolina’s victory against Brown.

Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner, while heaping postgame praise on the growth of Davis and Love, highlighted Davis’s 3-pointer in the first half that stopped the Yellow Jackets’ 13-0 run that vaulted them ahead 23-14.

“We were up and I thought maybe we can pull away here,” Pastner said, “and Davis hits that 3 deep at the end of the (shot) clock. And he hit a couple of deep ones in the second half as well, too.”

Postseason spread: UNC draws matchup with South Carolina for Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte

'Like a microwave': Dawson Garcia scores in bursts as UNC meets Georgia Tech in ACC opener

'It was time': UNC relishes moment against Michigan, rides second-half wave to blowout

Defense dials in on Michael Devoe

Hubert Davis said excluding the first-half stretch when Georgia Tech caught fire, he thought the Tar Heels “guarded better than we’ve guarded all season.”

The defensive challenge clearly started with attempting to limit the smooth lefty Devoe, the nation’s No. 1 scorer, who entered Sunday with four games of 26 points or more, topped by a 37-point outburst at rival Georgia. The senior swingman Black, North Carolina’s best defender on the wing, drew the primary assignment and used his 6-foot-8 length against the 6-5 Devoe.

When Black picked up his second foul with 4:54 remaining in the first half, the Tar Heels relied on Harris to match up with Devoe. After playing but two minutes off the bench in Wednesday night’s rout of Michigan, Harris logged nearly 14½ minutes of action here Sunday at Georgia Tech.

“I just thought we were really good defensively and in the second half we were fantastic,” Hubert Davis said. “It’s going to be hard to find somebody in the country that’s defending better than Leaky. Ant Harris is somebody that (almost) didn’t get into the game on Wednesday against Michigan, and his number was called and he was fantastic in his 14 minutes defensively (Sunday).”

Charlotte? New York? El Paso? Bowl possibilities could land UNC in any number of places

'I love his fire': Has UNC found a new leader in transfer Brady Manek as Michigan arrives?

Big Four and More: Ready to read more on the ACC and college sports? Join our ‘Big Four and More’ newsletter that’s delivered right to your email

UNC in line to regain ranking?

Love said “I think we’ve improved a lot” in assessing North Carolina’s three-game winning streak, before adding “we’re just ready to get back to work.” When the Tar Heels return to practice this week and prepare for Elon’s visit on Saturday night, they could be back in the Top 25.

North Carolina fell from the No. 18 position in the rankings and tumbled out of the poll after its winless weekend in the Hall of Fame Tip-off Tournament, a pair of losses Nov. 20-21 to Purdue and Tennessee at the Mohegan Sun. Now, Purdue figures to move up to No. 1 on Monday and supplant Duke, while Tennessee climbed to No. 13 in this past week’s poll.

Blowing out No. 24 Michigan 72-51 and producing a 17-point romp on the road here at Georgia Tech to open ACC play could earn the Tar Heels another spot in the Top 25.

“We should be,” Love said, when asked about the prospect of possibly being ranked again.

Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

Take advantage of our $1 for 6 months sale on digital subscriptions. For special offers, click here.

This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball shares success, rolls past Georgia Tech in ACC opener