CHAPEL HILL — Early in the second half of their ACC opener, the Florida State Seminoles appeared to be pulling away from UNC. After hitting 7 of 14 3-pointers in the first half to build a six-point lead at the break, visiting Florida State hit 3 of 5 from long range to extend the lead to 14 in the first two and a half minutes of the second half.
“I thought for the first half and the beginning of the second half, I just think the energy and the effort just for whatever reason wasn’t there,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis. “We just seemed like we were a step slower on both ends of the floor and just weren’t getting loose balls. Weren’t getting the rebounds, weren’t finishing around the basket, we weren’t making open shots.”
The lead remained at 12 at the 13:25 mark, and it appeared the Heels were on their way to a home loss to open conference play.
That’s when Davis decided to pull out a new defense.
“What we were doing was not working,” he said. “So we needed to change the course and try something.”
Carolina went to the press. They’ve worked on it in practice every day, but it hadn’t been used much in games, certainly not to the extent that UNC was about to use it.
“That’s the first time that we’ve ever done it after made baskets,” Davis said. “It’s usually after a dead ball or free throw, full court situations. We were pressing after make or miss.”
Cormac Ryan got a steal that led to a layup. A bad shot by FSU led to another layup. At the under 12 media timeout, UNC trailed by 7.
“I went into the huddle and I said, ‘Guys do you like this?’ ” Davis recalled. “’Do you want to continue to do this?’ And they said, ‘Coach, just keep doing it. Let’s keep doing it.’”
FSU missed three straight threes. Armando Bacot made a three-point play. RJ Davis hit from outside. Elliot Cadeau got a pair of steals and layups. Seth Trimble got a layup. Harrison Ingram got a layup.
When the dust cleared, UNC led by 14 on the strength of a 21-0 run. The Smith Center crowd was deafening, and it was the Tar Heels, not the Seminoles, who were pulling away in the ACC opener.
“When we went to the press, it brought our energy up,” Davis said. “It got us steals and deflections, and so we were able to convert on that, and if we didn’t get a steal or a deflection, it sped them up. And then when they missed it got us out in transition where we want to be offensively. So because of that, we were able to attack the basket.”
RJ Davis finished with 27 points, his third straight game with at least 27. He’s the first Tar Heel with a scoring streak like that in more than two decades. Trimble came off the bench to score 9 on 3-of-3 shooting, and Bacot had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds as the Tar Heels wrapped up a 78-70 win to move to 7-1 on the year. FSU fell to 4-3.
“We’ve never had issues with presses in the past,” Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton said. “We normally extend the lead when people press us. Right now, we’re vulnerable.”
That doesn’t mean UNC is now a pressing team — just that the Tar Heels now have an additional tool in Davis’ bag of tricks.
“Off and on throughout the year we will continue to do that, and I thought they executed it really well on the fly tonight,” he said.
