SAN ANTONIO — North Carolina didn’t beat Providence as much as the Tar Heels survived Bryce Cotton. The Friars’ senior guard was offensively dominant, almost single-handedly pulling off an NCAA Tournament upset.
Almost.
North Carolina rallied to tie the game late, and — after Providence’s LaDontae Henton missed a potential go-ahead basket from in close — won it at the free-throw line as James Michael McAdoo handed them a 79-77 second-round East Regional victory.
Actually, make that an escape. No other word will do, after the Tar Heels (24-9) rallied from a 71-64 deficit with 4:34 to play. Cotton poured in 36 points, a career-high and tied for the most ever against UNC in the Big Dance.
“It wasn’t enough, you know?” said Cotton, who added eight assists and five rebounds in his final game. “I definitely left it all out on the floor just like the rest of my teammates, but obviously, it wasn’t enough because we didn’t come up with the win.’’
“Bryce Cotton played one of the best games I’ve ever seen anybody play against us,’’ North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “My whole thought defensively was: ‘What can we do to stop him?’ You look at that line, 13-for-23, 7-for-7, eight assists, that was as good a performance as any [I’ve faced], even though they scored more points, because he was truly dominating the game.’’
Cotton spurred the Friars (23-12) to a surprising Big East championship upset of Creighton, and had them leading the Tar Heels 77-74 late, until Marcus Paige (19 points to lead five Tar Heels in double figures) knotted it with a 3-pointer with 1:10 left. With 37 seconds left, Cotton gave the ball up and Ladontae Henton (16 points and 11 boards) missed from in close despite contact.
“Either way it goes, I feel I should have made the shot,’’ Henton said. “It was at point‑-blank range. The ball just didn’t go in for me.’’
It went down for McAdoo, at least enough. He was fouled by Carson Desrosiers with 3.5 seconds remaining, and despite missing the second of two free throws, chased down his own rebound and was fouled by Cotton. McAdoo sank another free throw with 1.7 seconds to play for the final margin, the long rebound from his second shot trickling off Cotton’s fingertips.
“Well, we feel very fortunate to say the least. We really did some good things and we really did some bad things. But we made a couple of plays at the end,’’ said Williams, who has had to deal with losing star P.J. Hairston to NCAA violations, Leslie McDonald’s suspension and an academic fraud scandal in the athletic department.