Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs North Carolina Tar Heels Match Player Stats On Mar 10, 2021

Armando Bacot's 20 points and 13 rebounds were part of North Carolina's huge output in a 101-59 whipping of Notre Dame on Wednesday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament's second round in Greensboro, N.C.

Walker Kessler had 16 points and 12 rebounds, Day'Ron Sharpe added 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, Caleb Love poured in 15 points and RJ Davis had 14 points for the sixth-seeded Tar Heels.

North Carolina (17-9) meets No. 22 Virginia Tech (15-5), the No. 3 seed, on Thursday night in the quarterfinals.

The Tar Heels played without senior forward Garrison Brooks because of an ankle injury sustained four nights earlier in the regular-season finale against Duke, but it didn't matter.

Nate Laszewski and Prentiss Hubb led 11th-seeded Notre Dame (11-15), which won just two of its last seven games, with 13 points apiece. Juwan Durham added 10 points.

Even without Brooks, the Tar Heels overwhelmed the Irish on the boards, pulling in 25 offensive rebounds.

That was just part of the dominance in the lane. North Carolina recorded 12 blocked shots. Kessler's eight blocked shots set a Tar Heels program record for the most rejections by a freshman in an ACC tournament game.

North Carolina defeated Notre Dame by one point in early January at home in the only regular-season meeting between the teams.

Notre Dame fell into a 17-point first-half hole, so the game unfolded in a similar manner to the deficit it endured a night earlier against Wake Forest. In that game, a rally in the final seven minutes was rewarded when Trey Wertz drained a winning 3-pointer at the buzzer for an 80-77 victory.

This time, there was no comeback that would allow the Irish to extend their season. North Carolina went on a 27-2 second-half run to push the margin to 86-49 points with more than seven minutes remaining. It became a 37-2 splash for a 96-49 lead with 3:55 to play.

The Irish shot 31.1 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers.

North Carolina eclipsed the 100-point mark for the first time since February 2019.

--Field Level Media