North Carolina, Appalachian State make history in thrilling 63-61 shootout

North Carolina and Appalachian State made history on Saturday in their thrilling shootout. The 63-61 score is in a category of its own.

It marked the first game in history to have that final score — also known as a “scorigami.” The two teams combined for 62 points in the fourth quarter, which was one point shy of the FBS record, and the Mountaineers had a chance to force overtime. However, the two-point conversion failed, and the Tar Heels held on.

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ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg put the score into interesting perspective afterward. The game total was more than the North Carolina vs. Appalachian State basketball game this past year — which ended in a 70-50 UNC victory — and the Mountaineers became the first team since 2007 to score 40 points in the fourth quarter. It also marked the first game since 2019 when both teams scored 60 or more points.

North Carolina trailed 21-7 at one point in the first half, but the Tar Heels never wavered under their leader and quarterback Drake Maye, who finished the first two quarters completing 18 of his 23 passes for three touchdowns. At halftime, UNC coach Mack Brown shared his thoughts on Maye and the rest of his team’s performance against Appalachian State in the first half.

“[Maye] is really cool and collected,” Brown said. “He can run and he just makes plays. We work on the one minute drill every day, very proud of the way they handled that with about a minute and thirty left.”

Maye finished with 352 passing yards and four touchdowns to help lead the Tar Heels offense to victory to improve to 2-0 on the season. Now, he and North Carolina will regroup before taking on Georgia State Sept. 10 at noon ET.