SOUTH BEND — That looked like the first-place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, looked like the No. 7 team in the country, looked like a team that has designs of playing deep into March.
That team wasn’t Notre Dame (12-18; 7-12 ACC), which was simply overwhelmed by everything North Carolina did Tuesday in an 84-51 loss at the Dean Smith Center.
Tae Davis led the Irish with 11 points.
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Already up by 16 points at halftime, the Tar Heels scored the first 16 points of the second half. When Jalen Washington connected on a 3 with 14:35 left, it made it 57-25. The 32-point deficit was the largest this season for Notre Dame, which didn’t make its first basket of the second half until 13:55 remained.
The Irish trailed by as many as 38.
Notre Dame arrived in Chapel Hill having won two straight against two NCAA Tournament hopefuls (Wake Forest, Clemson) and winners of five of its last six. None of those six games were played against teams with the depth and the determination and the downright dominance of that North Carolina team, which clinched a share of the ACC regular season with the win.
Notre Dame slipped to 0-5 overall and 0-4 in league play this season against ranked teams.
The last time Notre Dame was on the road in ACC play, it tumbled into a 29-point halftime hole at Syracuse, so getting off to a good start in this one was paramount.
It didn’t happen. Even after North Carolina started three walk-ons on Senior Night, all of whom played the first two defensive possessions, Notre Dame couldn’t capitalize. A quick start, a good start, was there for the Irish, but they came up empty on both possessions to begin.
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Notre Dame never led, trailed by as many as 17 in the first half and was down 16 at halftime in a half where North Carolina led for 18:44. It was too much RJ Davis, even though he hurt his left elbow and missed the back end of the first half, too much Armando Bacot, took much Cormac Ryan (remember him?) and too much Tar Heel basketball of getting stops, getting out in the open floor and getting easy baskets.
One key anytime you play North Carolina is to keep the Tar Heels contained on the backboard. The rebounding advantage was only two (20-18) in Carolina’s favor at half. Notre Dame couldn’t find any flow on the offensive end. It shot 35.5 percent from the field, 12.5 percent (1-for-8) and 50 percent from the foul line with seven turnovers in the first half.
It was clear early that Notre Dame faced a massive uphill climb. Could the Irish make it a game in the second half the way they did last month in Central New York? One characteristic of a Micah Shrewsberry team is that they’re going to fight no matter the score, but this was one of the toughest tests this team has faced all year in league play.
North Carolina’s simply good. Final Four good.
Notre Dame was scheduled to return home early Wednesday morning and have a couple of days back on campus before returning to the road to close out the regular season with a game at Virginia Tech. The Irish jump-started their late-season surge in early February with a victory over the Hokies at Purcell Pavilion.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
