Bacot powers North Carolina past UNC-Asheville

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Armando Bacot scored 22 points to lead North Carolina to a 72-53 victory over UNC-Asheville on Tuesday night.

Bacot was 8 of 14 from the floor and grabbed seven rebounds. R.J. Davis added 12 points for North Carolina (4-2), which shot 49% from the floor and made 7 of 14 from long range. Leaky Black added nine points with 11 of North Carolina's 51 rebounds.

Jamon Battle scored a career-high 19 points, on 7-of-11 shooting with three 3-pointers, for UNC-Asheville (2-3).

North Carolina took the lead for good four minutes into the game and led by as many as 20 in the first half while building a 37-24 halftime lead. A 14-8 surge by the Bulldogs pulled them to 45-38 with 12:38 remaining but they didn’t any get closer.

The Tar Heels rebounded from consecutive losses to ranked Purdue and Tennessee that knocked them out of the AP Top 25 poll. Bacot scored a combined 18 points in the two losses.

The Tar Heels are 9-0 against the Bulldogs, including 7-0 in Chapel Hill.

___

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25