Louisville upsets No. 2 North Carolina 71-65

UNC shot a season-low 34.5 percent in its first loss of ACC play. Rebounding with a win would be huge for the Cardinals, who are 1-3 against ranked opposition this season.

UNC falls to 19-3 overall and 8-1 in the ACC and will look to make this loss a mere bump in the road on Saturday at Notre Dame.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams argues a call with a game…

The first half was straight hot garbage for both teams.

Louisville was slightly better at 32 percent and somehow emerged with a 28-27 lead at the break despite trailing for much of the half.

WACO, Texas (AP) – Connor Lammert had 15 points, including a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute, and Texas won for the sixth time in its last seven games.

“Joel Berry’s been shooting it pretty doggone well”, Williams said.

“This is a sign that we still have a long way to go, but I’d rather say that when we’re still atop the league”, Paige said. Starting guards Marcus Paige and Joel Berry II went a combined 4-for-23 from the field and 2-for-8 on 3s.

“I don’t know how good this team can be because it is so inexperienced and so young”, he said. “When we did get it inside today, we just didn’t finish inside at a high enough clip”. If a post player was to flash into the middle, there was someone right there behind him. We didn’t play anywhere close to our potential today.

With Louisville often fronting UNC’s bigs on the block and backside help taking away the high post, entry passes were few and ineffective, especially in the first half. “I told them they would get judged collectively and individually by how we defended and rebounded tonight”.

Justin Jackson scored 16 points and Brice Johnson had 15 for North Carolina, which shot just 35 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers. Joel Berry missed nine of the 10 shots he attempted. “They have seven-footers down there”. Louisville bounced back with its best victory after its worst showing of the season, closing the gap in the ACC race and renewing faith in its postseason chances. They were switching from a man to a zone in the same possession, so they were flying around. We just didn’t match their intensity for a lot of it. It’s an 18-game season.

Vann’s three-game week saw him shoot 12 of 15 from the free- throw line, including his second career double-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in a 74-63 win over Binghamton on January 30. At that point the Tar Heels’ only hope was to shoot their way back into the game and though they eventually trailed by two points with 35 seconds to play they couldn’t come up with what they needed most: a stop and a made shot.

Yet another question about his All-American’s errant touch of late frustrated Williams at the podium.

“I thought our guys, defensively and rebounding-wise, got up in a big-time way”, Cardinals coach Rick Pitino said. “He hasn’t shot it worth a frickin’ frank for four or five games”.

“Am I supposed to send him out to Siberia?”

“He’s one of the greatest kids I’ve ever coached”, he added.

“But I don’t have any potion I can rub on people”. UNC’s defense failed to get stops or control the offensive glass.