CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No one is safe in this NCAA Tournament, not the No. 1 overall seed, not the favorites and not even the defending national champions on their home turf.
No. 7 seed Texas A&M added another log to the bracket fire with a 86-65 drubbing of No. 2 seed North Carolina on Sunday afternoon in the second round.
The 2017 champs are going home, a little sooner than expected, and after its first loss in a tournament game played in this state since 1979.
The Tar Heels (26-11) had won 30 straight NCAA games in the state — and had a 17-0 mark under coach Roy Williams — since an infamous loss to Pennsylvania on “Black Sunday” in Raleigh in 1979. UNC had never lost a tournament game (12-0) in Charlotte before Sunday.
Two days after No. 1-seeded Virginia lost in the same building, shocked by 16th-seeded Maryland-Baltimore County, the Heels were knocked out, too.
Texas A&M forward Tyler Davis made sure of that and so did an ill-timed poor shooting performance from the 3-point line by UNC. Davis, a 6-foot-10, 264-pound Mack truck disguised as a college basketball player, scored 18 points and helped the Aggies (22-12) take control of the game midway through the first half.
UNC’s undersized lineup, which it rode to get to this point, had no answer for Davis inside. When the Heels did collapse, it left A&M’s shooters open. Wing D.J. Hogg and point guard T.J. Starks took advantage of the open looks to help the Aggies make 10 3-pointers.
Senior guard Joel Berry (21 points) led UNC but he was just 2 of 10 from 3 and Luke Maye (13 points) was the only other UNC player to score in double-figures. The Heels finished just 6-31 from the 3-point line
Texas A&M led by as many as 24 points, 60-36 at 13:17 after a 3-pointer by Admon Gilder. The Aggies put the game away with a deflating sequence that started with a block of a Theo Pinson layup and ended with a highlight dunk by Robert Williams.
Tonny Trocha-Morelos, one of Texas A&M’s army of big men, swatted a layup by Pinson on one end and then Williams unleashed a windmill dunk on the other end for a 71-51 lead and an exclamation point with 5:49 left in the game.
UNC was actually up 20-13 with 11:34 left in the first half. The Tar Heels got off to fast, energetic start with the partisan Charlotte crowd behind them.
Then Davis started to go to work. Roy Williams tried Maye, Sterling Manley, Garrison Brooks and even a 2-3 zone for a possession to attempt to slow the massive junior from Plano, Texas.
Davis scored nine points during a decisive 15-0 Texas A&M run midway through the first half. The Heels, meanwhile, couldn’t buy a basket, especially from the 3-point line.
UNC was just 1-13 from 3 in the first half with Berry and Pinson missing all seven of their shots. Berry finally ended a 6-minute drought with a pair of free throws at 5:25.
But Davis wasn’t done. He bullied Brooks, the freshman, for a pair of post baskets to stretch the Aggies’ lead to 36-26.
Williams finally resorted to a zone at that point and Hogg responded by draining a 3-pointer from the left wing. Starks followed with a 3 with 9.8 seconds left in the half to make it 42-28.
After a late Texas A&M turnover, UNC actually had a chance with 0.4 seconds left in the half on an out-of-bounds play. Manley found a clearing in front of the basket and had a clean look at a quick tap-in but he couldn’t get the shot to fall in.
It was that kind of game for the Heels, they couldn’t get anything to go their way.
Texas A&M moves onto a Sweet-16 matchup with No. 3 seed Michigan in the West region on Thursday in Los Angeles.
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©2018 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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