North Carolina scored the game’s first 18 points and demolished visiting Florida State 94-74 on Saturday afternoon in Atlantic Coast Conference action in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Caleb Love racked up 18 points, Armando Bacot provided 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Brady Manek and R.J. Davis each added 16 points for North Carolina (18-7, 10-4 ACC). Love made 6 of 8 attempts from 3-point range.
The Tar Heels led by 38 points at halftime and have won six of their last seven games.
Florida State (13-11, 6-8) has dropped six consecutive games, unable to overcome a rash of recent injuries.
Cam’Ron Fletcher posted 16 points and 10 rebounds off the Seminoles’ bench and RayQuan Evans and Matthew Cleveland each scored 13 points.
North Carolina shot 55.2 percent from the field, making 12 of 28 attempts from 3-point range.
Manek scored seven of the first 15 points in the game. Love had 15 points by halftime.
There were some dizzying scores along the way. The marks were 24-1, 33-8 and 55-18 before the 62-24 halftime count.
North Carolina made 23 of 31 shots from the field, including 9 of 12 from 3-point distance, in the first half. At 74.2 percent, it was only the hottest-shooting half for the Tar Heels since 2018 (78.1 percent vs. North Carolina State).
Florida State’s first point came at the 13:03 mark on Tanor Ngom’s free throw. The Seminoles didn’t have a field goal until more than 90 seconds later, with Fletcher’s layup at the 11:32 mark trimming the deficit to 24-3.
After a two-point escape earlier in the week at Clemson, the Tar Heels had no problem taking charge of this game. It came a week after their only home loss of the season when they fell to Duke.
–Field Level Media
