The UNC basketball program suffers its first loss of the 2022-2023 season, as they are upset by Iowa State in the Phil Knight Invitational.
Caleb Grill.
A name you probably didn’t know before Friday’s Phil Knight Invitational semifinals.
Grill had a career day en route to leading Iowa State to an upset win over the UNC basketball program.
Final
North Carolina Tar Heels
75
Iowa State Cyclones
80
Before today’s game, Grill was just 4-24 from three-point range. Of course, he becomes the latest player to find their shooting stroke against the Tar Heels, as he made seven of his 11 attempts from beyond the arc.
The combination of Grill and Jaren Holmes accounted for 53 of the Cyclones’ 80 total points. Even with defensive standout Leaky Black switching between assignments, the Tar Heels couldn’t find a way to slow down the one not being guarded by the fifth-year senior.
North Carolina struggled shooting the ball, especially from deep. They made just three of their 18 three-point attempts, as they couldn’t get some open looks to fall.
Hubert Davis’ team did have an eight-point lead in the second half, but the Cyclones quickly battled back. Once the momentum shifted, the Tar Heels began to play sloppy, making some crucial mistakes down the stretch which helped lead to their first loss of the season.
Iowa State put together a 17-5 run to end the game, as North Carolina had four turnovers and a Caleb Love airball during that span. The contest went from a 60-53 Tar Heels advantage to a 70-65 Cyclones victory.
RJ Davis led the Tar Heels with 15 points, while Armando Bacot finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds. After combining for 51 points in the win over Portland, Pete Nance was limited to just seven points, while Love made four of his 14 shot attempts for a total of 12 points.
The loss is frustrating for many reasons, but hopefully, it serves as the wake-up call this team desperately needs. It’s almost definite that they’ll fall out of the No. 1 ranking this upcoming week, which might be a good thing for this team.
As Hubert Davis has said, this team has shown flashes, and we definitely saw some on Friday night. However, this team hasn’t shown the consistency a great team has, as they’ll go back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to make that happen.
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