Hubert Davis breaks down final seconds of loss vs. Stanford

North Carolina lost their seventh game overall and second in conference in their worst fashion yet of the season with Stanford hitting a game-winner in Chapel Hill.

Following the 72-71 loss to the Cardinal, Hubert Davis explained the last moments and the coaching to his team. He said he laid out the defense much like he has in several of their other close games that they’ve played in over the past month with them needing one last stop.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s the same communication that I had in regards to a similar situation against UCLA, against NC State, and against Notre Dame,” Davis explained. “You know, whatever it takes, we’ve got to get a stop and we’ve got to finish the possession with a rebound.”

However, the Tar Heels didn’t get that stop with Jaylen Blakes (20 points, seven assists) finishing a season-best outing with a game-winning jumper after bringing it all the way up the court in under eight seconds.

“I haven’t looked at it but, I mean, we had a man-on-man. He took it the length of the floor, rose up and took a step back, and knocked it down,” recalled Davis. “And you have to give credit to Blakes being able to make that shot in that situation and it resulted in us losing.”

Still, UNC had a last chance with 1.5 still on the clock. It just didn’t amount to anything with a full-court pass going essentially out of bounds to end it in the Dean Dome on Saturday.

“Uh, to get a basket,” Davis said of their goal on the final play. “Well, I mean, there wasn’t much time. I think it was .7 or .9. So, trying to get something near the basket to be able to put it in. Again, haven’t looked at the last play but I felt the ball curved and went off center and went straight out of bounds or close to out of bounds. So, that’s what I can remember from that last play.”

With that, Blakes’ shot led to the first home loss of the year and ended a four-game win streak, with six wins over the last seven, for North Carolina. Now, after sliding because of it in the ACC, UNC will have to get back in the win column with games this week at Wake Forest and versus Boston College.