Get to know: No. 12 North Carolina

After an 18-point comeback win for No. 4 Auburn over No. 5 Iowa State on Monday night in the Maui Invitational, the Tigers advanced to the semifinals to face the No. 12 North Carolina Tar Heels in a rematch of the 2019 Sweet Sixteen matchup .

The Tar Heels earned a victory of their own in the opening round game at Hawaii by overcoming a 21-point deficit to Dayton – marking the second-largest comeback in program history and the largest second-half comeback in North Carolina history.

“At halftime, Seth and I were really motivated,” North Carolina guard RJ Davis said of the comeback effort. “We were kind of the voice when it came to getting the guys going and just keeping our spirits going.”

Davis, a Naismith, NABC and Wooden National Player of the Year nominee and also the ACC’s preseason Player of the Year, made four second-half 3-pointers – a season-high – for the Tar Heels over the Flyers on Monday night.

The graduating senior ranks fourth on North Carolina’s all-time scoring list, and if Davis reached his 2023-24 point total of 784, he would have scored the most points in ACC history.

Similar to Auburn star Johni Broome, Davis played 36 minutes in the Tar Heels’ opening game in Maui – including all 20 minutes of the second half. The guard was able to go 6 of 6 from the charity stripe against the Flyers in the second half – his final four sealing the win in the final 14 seconds of the game.

“Especially when you have a very talented player like RJ on your team, I feel like he draws so much attention,” teammate Drake Powell said of Davis.

It was Powell’s attack from deep that gave the Tar Heels the lead for good with 1:13 left on Monday night. It was one of only two shots the freshman guard took all night, going 2-for-2 from three,

“So it’s just important to always stay ready,” Powell said. “Yeah, I just planted my feet and knocked it over. It was a good experience.”

Next to the two guards is junior guard Seth Trimble, who scored a total of 27 points in 33 minutes of play against the Flyers. Trimble had a strong start to the season, posting high points in each of the first two games and scoring in double figures in all five games.

In the Tar Heels’ only loss to No. 1 Kansas, Trimble set another career high with 19 points and became the first player on the roster, joining RJ Davis, to lead the Tar Heels in scoring – having done so 47 times.

“Auburn is a really good team. They are very competitive. They are very physical. I mean, I think they’re a top five team. We have our hands full. “It’s going to be a good game,” Trimble said of Tuesday night’s game against the Tigers. “We know we have to prepare mentally because tomorrow we have to bring two halves together. We can’t sustain this 15-point comeback every second half.”

With a trip to the Maui Invitational championship game on the line, No. 4 Auburn and No. 12 North Carolina will tip off at 10 p.m. CST on ESPN at the Lahaina Civic Center before a rocking and likely Tar Heel-favored tip-off, crowd.

“It was electric. It was like a high school atmosphere, something we all kind of miss. It was a super loud gym. We had, I don’t know what percentage of the hall was filled with our fans,” Trimble said.

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Patrick Bingham | Sports editor

Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He began The Plainsman in fall 2022.

You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham

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