ATLANTA — The first game of Saturday’s CBS Sports Classic, Kentucky’s 78-66 win over St. John’s, was generally considered the bigger matchup given both teams’ struggles (relative to preseason expectations) — and the relationship between the two coaches. But the second game was the better game.
Final score: North Carolina 71, Ohio State 70.
What it lacked in quality perimeter-shooting, it made up for with late-game drama. The final 48 seconds were wild here inside State Farm Arena.
The roller-coaster sequence began when John Mobley Jr. buried a 26-footer — while fouled! — to pull Ohio State completely out of what was earlier an 11-point deficit and put the Buckeyes ahead 70-67 after he completed the rare four-point play in the final minute. Fourteen seconds later, Seth Trimble scored on the other end to cut OSU’s lead to 70-69. Eleven seconds after that, Ohio State’s Colin White, under pressure. turned it over, creating a situation where UNC had the ball in Trimble’s hands, down a point with the shot clock off. He lost his footing on his way to the rim, then lost the ball. But Henri Veesaar — right place, right time — grabbed it and dunked it to put North Carolina back on top 71-70 with 7.2 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Mobley pulled a potential game-winner from 29 feet in the final seconds but missed. His teammate, Devin Royal, grabbed the rebound and put it back up — but UNC freshman Caleb Wilson was there to record his third block of the contest.
Game over.
“We talked about it in the huddle,” said North Carolina coach Hubert Davis. “Just two-and-a-half hours ago, if we say all we need to do is, for four seconds, play great defense to get a stop and get a win, would you take that? And they said yes. I said, well, that’s the reality. That’s all we have to do.”
As noted, they did it. So North Carolina is now 11-1 and 10th in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Michigan remains No. 1 for the 11th consecutive day. Barring a big surprise, the Tar Heels will close out the non-league portion of their schedule Monday with a win over East Carolina. Eight days after that, UNC will open its ACC schedule with a home game against Florida State.
The first UNC-Duke game, if you’re curious, is Feb. 7.
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