Armando Bacot jokes about Pete Nance’s love for lemon Oreos

Armando Bacot and the North Carolina Tar Heels kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive on Saturday with a 71-63 win over the No. 6 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. 

It was a game that was defined as “must-win” by many analysts across the country, and the Tar Heels finally got their win of the year over a Top 10 opponent. However, in a shocking turn of events, North Carolina was propelled by a breakout performance from Pete Nance — who poured in 22 points and swatted four blocks — using, lemon Oreos?

According to Hubert Davis, that’s how he motivated Nance before the game, giving him a package of the lemon version of Milk’s Favorite Cookie. Afterwards, Bacot had some jokes regarding the situation.

“He’s been working hard all year to really get back to the place you want to be in,” started Bacot. “Coach told us something funny after the game. He was like, ‘P, you show them what it was,’ and he pulled out some lemon Oreos. I guess Coach had kind of asked him what did he need to get in a rhythm, I don’t know the full story and he pulled out lemon Oreos. I think Coach went and got him some lemon Oreos, or somebody — Pete went and got something. That was like his thing before games. It worked out.

“So everyone’s just eating lemon Oreos now. We didn’t even know they made lemon Oreos.”

But the even bigger question, does Bacot think lemon Oreos are any good?

“I wouldn’t know. That’s a Pete thing,” answered Bacot. “He had them in his locker. But him getting them, that was huge for us.”

Moreover, Nance finished the game connecting on seven of his ten shots from the field, including hitting all four of his three-pointers. So, the strategy clearly worked.

Lemon Oreos seem like a pretty random treat to get a player fired up, but hey, whatever gets him to play his best.

This season, the Ohio native has averaged 9.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. Before Saturday night against Virginia, Nance’s season-high this year came against the Syracuse Orange on Oct. 24, when he pumped in 21 points. He drilled six of 17 field goals in that one, grabbed four rebounds, dished out three assists, and grabbed three steals.

Last season, Nance averaged 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Northwestern Wildcats.

You can bet North Carolina will be keeping those lemon Oreos on deck moving forward.

On3’s Wade Peery contributed to this article.