NEW YORK —— The North Carolina Tar Heels rallied from a double digit deficit to pull off a thrilling 89-84 victory over the No. 23 Ohio State Buckeyes in overtime in the CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden here in New York on Saturday. Check out the highlights, stats, and recap of this memorable matchup. Click Here For Box Scores.
This exciting contest had fans on the edge of their seats as North Carolina rallied from a 14-point first-half deficit to force overtime on a buzzer-beating jumper from Pete Nance. The game was no less short than a classic as both teams put up a strong fight. Please Also Read: No. 5 Houston stuns No. 2 Virginia – highlights, stats and recap
Armando Bacot paced the Har Heels with 28 points, on 11 of 19 shooting to go along with 15 rebounds. Caleb Love scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and in overtime and hit four big 3-pointers while dishing out seven assists in the win today.
RJ Davis added 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Nance contributed eight points and 10 rebounds for North Carolina (8-4) which had lost the previous two games against AP Top 25 opponents.
Brice Sensabaugh led Ohio State with 22 points and eight rebounds. Bruce Thornton added 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting with five rebounds and five assists and Justice Sueing finished with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Buckeyes (7-3) who suffered back-to-back defeats to ACC opponents after losing to Duke at the end of last month.
Ohio State led 44-35 at halftime and then build an 11-point cushion to take a 66-55 advantage with 7:14 left in the second half.
However, North Carolina chipped away slowly at the lead with Love, Davis and Bacot doing most of the damage on offense. Davis tied the game at 72 apiece with 2:10 remaining in the second half and also gave the Tar Heels a three-point lead with a 3-pointer with 1:29 left in regulation before Ohio State took back the lead and put pressure on the preseason No. 1 side to make a big shot to save the game.
In the end Nance connected on a jumper that left his hand as time expired to force overtime after the teams end 79 each after two entertaining halves of basketball.
North Carolina then outscored the tired-looking Buckeyes 10-5 in overtime play to secure the win and grabbed a third straight victory.
