The experience that was supposed to help No. 1 North Carolina in tough games was no help at all in its 70-65 loss to Iowa State on Friday in the Phil Knight Invitational.
The Tar Heels (5-1) had a 61-58 lead when senior forward Armando Bacot committed turnovers on three straight possessions all while he was put in position as a ball handler making a pass.
The Cyclones (5-0) took advantage of all three thanks in part to guard Caleb Grill, who scored a career-high 31 points. Grill made the 3-pointer — his career-high tying seventh of the game — to tie the game. Then scored on a jumper to take the lead with 1:39 left.
Carolina looked unsure offensively down the stretch as Caleb Love missed a 3-pointer from the right corner and an attempted layup on an ensuing possession.
Iowa State held the Heels to just 36 percent shooting in the second half and really disrupted their offensive flow with a 1-3-1 zone.
It seemed like the Heels would overcome it as they took a lead with a 10-0 run that was capped off by scrappy plays. Leaky Black rebounded an Bacot missed free throw. Bacot got the ball back and found Pete Nance with a skip pass to the left for Nance’s first 3-pointer of the game.
When Black broke down the Cyclones’ zone for an assist on a Bacot layup, Carolina led 55-47 with 6:23 left.
Iowa State entered the game shooting just 27.4 percent from 3-point range, which was among the worst in all of Division I. That wasn’t the case against the Heels.
The Cyclones were led by Grill, who epitomized their struggles having made just 4 of 24 3-pointers through their first four games. The senior guard made four 3s in the first half and the team shot 6 of 13.
Grill had a chance to give Iowa State its first lead since 5-2 with the final shot of the half. But his 3-point attempt was long and UNC took a 34-32 lead into the locker room.
The big man matchup of Bacot and the Cyclones’ Osun Osunniyi never materialized. Osunniyi, who was the second leading scorer averaging 12.8 points, picked up two fouls in the game’s first 90 seconds and was limited to just five minutes in the first half.
He never got into much of a flow when he did play in the second half.
With Osunniyi out, Bacot faced a rotation of Iowa State bigs. But again, he rarely got to operate without having another player running at him for a double team.
Bacot played more aggressively than he did against Portland on Thursday and finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.
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