Caleb Love, No. 8 UNC Beat No. 4 UCLA, Will Face Saint Peter's in Elite Eight

The No. 8 seed UNC men's basketball team is heading to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017 after beating the No. 4 seed UCLA Bruins 73-66 on Friday at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.

UNC guard Caleb Love scored a game-high 30 points, including back-to-back three-pointers that put the Tar Heels up 67-64 with 1:06 remaining.

Tar Heels big man Armando Bacot contributed a 14-point, 15-rebound double-double, and his tip-in with 22 seconds left gave North Carolina a 69-64 edge.

UCLA guard Jules Bernard scored 16 points to lead four UCLA Bruins who scored in double digits.

UNC improved to 27-9. UCLA, which made the Final Four last year, ended its season at 27-8.

     

Notable Performances

UNC G Caleb Love: 30 points, 4 assists

UNC F Armando Bacot: 14 points, 15 rebounds

UNC F Brady Manek: 13 points, 8 rebounds

UCLA G Jules Bernard: 16 points, 5 rebounds

UCLA G Tyger Campbell: 15 points, 6 assists

UCLA G Johnny Juzang: 14 points, 4 rebounds

    

Led By Love, UNC Hits Massive Shots Down Stretch for Win

The premise for this game is simple: UNC hit the big shots when it needed to the most, and UCLA could not respond.

Love carried UNC to the win with his own Herculean efforts as he scored 27 of his 30 points in the second half and hit six three-pointers overall:

    

One of those threes went down from the logo and gave UNC a 51-50 lead:

Other UNC players got in on the act, though, with Brady Manek nailing one from deep for a 61-60 lead:

Love needed a little help from Bacot to be the hero yet again. After a miss, Bacot saved the ball, which found its way back to Friday's star for another cold-blooded three-point attempt. This one went in, and the score was tied at 64.

Love had been feeling it all second half, so why shouldn't he have immediately looked to shoot as soon as he got the ball on the wing here? 

UNC never trailed for the remainder of the game, and Love ended up doing something no other Tar Heel has done in 35 years.

Now Love and the Tar Heels are back in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2017. They'll certainly hope to repeat that run, which ended with the school's sixth men's hoops national title.

     

Cold Shooting, Poor Rebounding Doom Bruins

UCLA was in good shape midway through the second half after Bernard made a layup with 9:27 left to put the Bruins up 56-51.

Of course, this game was far from over, but UCLA found itself in the driver's seat with a chance to head back to the Final Four.

Instead, the Bruins are going home early.

The Bruins only scored 10 points for the remainder of the game. They made just 5-of-16 field goals and missed all four of their three-pointers.

They were largely a one-man show in the end, as Tyger Campbell scored six of those points and assisted on another bucket.

Bernard hit the only other shot during that stretch on a putback off a Johnny Juzang miss.

Rebounding hurt the Bruins, who lost the board battle 43-34. 

Bacot had four offensive rebounds in the final 5:25 alone. Three of those boards led to points: a pair of Bacot free throws to cut the UCLA lead to 58-56, Love's three to tie the game at 64 and a tip-in for the 69-64 advantage.

Campbell's layup cut the lead to 69-66, but UNC iced the game with free throws, setting up an improbable No. 8 vs. No. 15 seed Elite Eight matchup.

        

What's Next?

UNC will face No. 15 seed Saint Peter's, which defeated No. 3 seed Purdue 67-64 earlier in the evening. The Peacocks are the lowest seed to ever make the Elite Eight.

The game is scheduled for Sunday after the conclusion of the Elite Eight matchup between Kansas and Miami, which starts at 2:20 p.m. ET.