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Off the cuff: That was a painful way to lose, especially coming on the heels of two impressive wins in the first two NCAA Tournament game and due to the worst shooting performance perhaps of RJ Davis' career at Carolina.

The Tar Heels should have had enough firepower even with Davis struggling, especially from beyond the arc. In the first half, Harrison Ingram took up some of the slack by scoring 10 points but he had just two in the second half. Ingram should have been able to handle Grant Nelson, an inferior athlete, but Nelson ended up with 24 and along with other Alabama players held Ingram to those two in the second half. Ingram could use another year of seasoning before the NBA if Nelson can better him.

Bacot had 12 at the half and only seven in the second half. Cormac Ryan had 12 in the first half and only five in the second half.

Jae'Lyn Withers picked up four fouls in only 10 minutes of play but his worst decision was to shoot a three with a minute to go and the Heels still up 85-84. Sure he was open - Alabama wanted him open - but he has hit only four of 19 threes all season. That's not the shot you want with a one-point lead and a minute left. Grant Nelson promptly scored on Withers and Withers picked up a foul. Carolina never led again.

There was plenty of blame to go around. Alabama's plan ultimately worked.

"We had a game plan," Bama coach Nate Oates said. "Gotta give Cadeau and Trimble a lot of credit. We planned on leaving them open; they hit four 3s in the first half. We questioned whether to stay with it or not. We decided to stick with it. Those guys ended up not playing very many minutes, 13 between the two of them. I think the plan was right."

Especially if your leading scorer - RJ Davis - misses all nine of his three-point attempts.

"Shout-out to Rylan (Griffen)," Alabama star Mark Sears said. "He did a great job on him. We don't win this game without Rylan locking him up. And he executing the game plan."

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Alabama 89, Carolina 87
Davis, Heels lose lead as season ends

(Photo by UNC Sports Information)

RJ Davis saved the worst for last. The North Carolina senior All-America player made just four of 20 shots and missed all nine of his three-point attempts as the Tar Heels lost a late lead and fell to Alabama 89-87 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. (3/28)

Certainly the blame doesn't rest solely on Davis as other things went wrong for Carolina in the season-ending lost but the Tar Heels did lose by only two and it was the first time in 41 games, dating back to last season, that Davis failed to hit a three-point shot.

After the game, as Davis was talking about the "easy shots" he normally makes, transfer Cormac Ryan was having none of the blame Davis talk.

"I've got to chime in here," Ryan said. "You guys can write whatever you want about tonight's game. You could talk about RJ, you could talk about the stats. You could talk about whatever. We would not be in this position today without RJ Davis and Armando Bacot. Carolina wouldn't be in this position today without these two guys.

"And so say what you want, there's just not a true fiber in your being that could actually believe that anything that happened tonight could be the result of something RJ did wrong, because RJ's done something incredible for this team. He's done stuff that's never been done before. He's one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. And for anybody to come and say anything negative about RJ is unacceptable."

UNC, which ends the season with a 29-8 record, shot just 25 percent as a team (10 for 40) in the second half, its worst shooting performance in a half all season and the lowest in a Tournament game since shooting a paltry 22.6 percent in the second half in a lost to Kansas in 2012.

The Tar Heels erased a five-point deficit in the first half to take an eight-point lead, 54-46, at the break. The Heels were hot offensively in the first half, shooting 52.6 from the field including 10 of 16 from the three-point line.

But in the second half, the cold Heels quickly lost the lead as Alabama went on an 11-2 run over just three minutes to go up 59-57.

The Tar Heels came back with a 13-5 run of its on, highlighted by a pass from Davis to Armando Bacot for a dunk that put the Heels back in control, 70-64.

Carolina still led 75-70 after a Ryan three before the tide changed on a 12-2 Crimson run, highlighted by threes from Aaron Estrada and Grant Nelson, that put Alabama up 82-77 with just 3:43 to play.

With Davis abandoning the three and driving to the hoop, the Tar Heels came back to take an 85-82 lead following a Davis runner and four straight free throws.

But Alabama took over from there, outscoring the Heels 7-2 over the last 1:20, even forcing a Carolina shot clock violation late in the game to seal the victory.

"Always in the closing minutes, it comes down to a play here or there," UNC coach Hubert Davis said. "I've talked all season about the little details that make big things happen, not just necessarily shots -- rebounds, free throws, loose balls. At the end of the day, they made down the stretch more plays than us. And unfortunately we came out on the short end."

The 24-11 Alabama team, led by Nelson's 24 points (12 came in the last seven minutes), plays Clemson with a chance to go to the Final Four.

Carolina now must look forward without Bacot, Ryan and Paxson Wojcik - and possibly RJ Davis who has another year of eligibility if he wants to get the bad taste out of his mouth.

Box score

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