By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: Heather Diehl / The Daily Tar Heel
The North Carolina Tar Heels completed the second-largest comeback in program history. Tar Heels survived and beat the Dayton Flyers 92-90 on Monday night.
UNC trailed by 18 points at halftime and 21 points early in the second half. The 18-point halftime deficit was UNC’s largest since the 2022-23 season.
R.J. Davis had the best performance of the season. Davis led the Tar Heels with 30 points.
“It was like a high school atmosphere,” Davis said. “It was a super loud gym; I don’t know what percentage of our fans we had in the gym, so just to have them behind our back while we were making a comeback was amazing. We knew we were super capable of it. We knew we were going to do it.”
A lot of motivation was behind the comeback. The Tar Heels are no strangers when it comes to make late comeback after trailing so many points. However, they must avoid to play catch up in the second half.
Seth Trimble added 27 on 10-14 shooting from the floor and 10-11 from the free throw line.
The Flyers had momentum for most of the game until the last six minutes. With 5:25 to go, the team held a 78-71 lead.
Tar Heels defense stepped up at the right time.
Davis and Trimble hit some clutch free throws late in the game.
When the Tar Heels were up 90-87, Nate Santos made a big-time shot, and it seemed like he tied the game, but the replay showed that his toe touched the line, so the basket counted as a two-point shot.
The Tar Heels finished the game by shooting 59 percent from the field. Trimble led the team with ten rebounds to complete a double-double.
Elliot Cadeau finished with double figures. Drake Powell and Ian Jackson gave the Tar Heels a major boost off the bench. Both men combined for 11 points.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com
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