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MEN'S HOOPS -- North Carolina vs. Notre Dame Game Preview

NORTH CAROLINA (10-15; 3-11 ACC) vs. NOTRE DAME (15-10; 6-8 ACC)

Where: Purcell Pavilion (9,149), South Bend, Ind.

Time/TV/Internet: Today (7:00 p.m., EST); Available on ESPN, UND.com, Sirius/XM Radio Channel 989

Line: Notre Dame -4 (147.5 over/under)

Prediction: UNC 72, Notre Dame 70

Notre Dame Game Notes

ACC Standings: Link is here

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Notre Dame returns home after a 1-2 three-game road swing.
Notre Dame returns home after a 1-2 three-game road swing. (USA Today/Sports)

Series Facts: The Irish get a shot at some payback tonight, and a must-win, in a repeat matchup against North Carolina.

The Tar Heels handed Notre Dame a rough start to the ACC season in November with a 76-65 loss at Chapel Hill, N.C.

North Carolina’s super freshman, Cole Anthony, was unstoppable in the game, going for 34 points, which included 6-of-11 three-point shooting.

The Irish have lost seven straight in this series since March of 2016 after Notre Dame had won three straight between January of 2015 and February 2016.

North Carolina stole a 69-68 win in January of 2018, the last time these two played at Purcell Pavilion.

The biggest win for Notre Dame in this series came in March of 2015 when the Irish bumped off the Tar Heals, 90-82, in Greensboro, N.C., to claim the ACC Conference Tournament championship.

Even with Anthony back from injury, the Tar Heals have still lost 10 of their last 12 games, including five straight, after their 64-62 home loss Saturday to Virginia.

A series that dates back 62 years and 32 games, North Carolina leads 25-7 all-time.

NOTRE DAME OVERVIEW

All the good mojo and scoring prowess the Irish demonstrated a couple of weeks during a sweep of a three-game homestead was washed away during the subsequent three-game road swing.

Notre Dame averaged 83.3 points per game in home wins over Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh.

The production slipped to 56.7 points a game — a 26.6-point drop-off — during a 1-2 road swing through Clemson, Virginia and Duke.

The sluggish scoring during the road trip falls squarely on the three Irish starting guards.

In consecutive losses to Virginia and Duke, sophomore Prentiss Hubb, along with seniors T.J. Gibbs and Rex Pflueger combined for 9-of-48 shooting (18.8 percent), 5-of-21 three-pointers (23.8 percent) and scored 24 total points.


UNC OVERVIEW

*Three-point shooting is one stat to watch today. Notre Dame ranks second in the ACC with 9.6 made threes per game, while North Carolina is 14th in the 15-team league with only 5.2 made threes per game. The Tar Heals are also last in the conference in three-point shooting accuracy at 29 percent. Notre Dame ranks fifth at 34 percent.

*UNC has dealt with a number of injuries this season. Seven Tar Heal players have missed at least one game with an injury.

Obviously the most notable player on that lengthy inactive list, Anthony missed 11 games through December and January with a knee injury.


GAME OUTLOOK

*In many respects, these two teams are suffering through almost identical seasons.

Notre Dame has lost three ACC games by one point and three others by five points or fewer.

Think that’s tough luck?

North Carolina has lost five games this season when opponents either hit a tying shot to send a game to overtime, or on a last-second game-winning shot in regulation.

UNC’s latest heartbreaking loss — a 64-62 home defeat Saturday night to Virginia on a buzzer-beating three-pointer — meant the Tar Heals have lost three straight one-possession games at home.

Expect another close game and some more hearts broken tonight.


QUICK HITS

*One game after the Irish offense scored a season low 49 points against Virginia, the Notre Dame defense gave up a season-high 94 points Saturday to Duke.

*One beneficiary of the Irish blowout to the Blue Devils, Irish freshman walk-on guard Elijah Morgan scored a career-high five points in five minutes during mop-up duty. That was five more points than Gibbs and Pflueger combined for.

*After scoring a season-high 18 points, Feb. 9, in a win over Clemson, Pflueger has been held scoreless that last two games.


QUOTEABLE: “For us, the last 10 minutes in timeouts (in the Duke blowout), I was talking about Monday night. We gotta turn around mentally and get ready to play.” — Irish head coach Mike Brey on looking ahead during the closing minutes of the 34-point loss Saturday at Duke.

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