Armando Bacot had 16 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 8 North Carolina top host Pittsburgh 70-57 on Tuesday.
RJ Davis added 15 points and four assists for the Tar Heels while Cormac Ryan and Seth Trimble each scored 10 points.
The Panthers (9-5, 0-3 in ACC) were paced by Carlton Carrington’s 20 points. He also had four rebounds.
Pittsburgh jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held North Carolina (10-3, 2-0) scoreless for the first 6:20 of the game.
The Panthers went up 14-7 after Guillermo Diaz Graham’s three-pointer with 11:38 left in the first half, but the Tar Heels answered with an 8-0 run to take their first lead. During that run, Pitt missed the mark on 10 consecutive shots.
The Panthers ended the dry spell and went ahead on Federiko Federiko’s layup with 5:38 remaining, but Elliot Cadeau replied with his own layup to help the Tar Heels retake the lead. North Carolina didn’t trail again the rest of the way.
Davis’ 3-pointer with two seconds left in the first half gave the Tar Heels a 31-28 edge at the break.
The Panthers went 5-for-29 (17.2 percent) from three-point range and shot 21-for-68 (30.9 percent) overall.
Meanwhile, North Carolina shot 23-for-63 (36.5 percent) from the floor, including a 5-for-17 (29.4 percent) mark from beyond the arc.
Harrison Ingram’s layup opened a double-digit lead for the Tar Heels with 5:45 to play. The Panthers trimmed the deficit to six but Ingram answered with a 3-pointer and Bacot followed with a dunk to push North Carolina’s lead to 11 points.
Blake Hinson had 11 points and four boards for Pitt. Diaz Graham and Jaland Lowe each had 10 points.
The Panthers will search for their first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season at Louisville on Saturday. North Carolina visits No. 16 Clemson on the same day.
–Field Level Media
