The North Carolina Tar Heels made it look easy in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and Bradley Beal Elite alum Caleb Love was at the center of the blowout victory.
Caleb drained six threes, an NCAA Tournament record for a UNC player, and finished with 23 points and the eighth-seeded Tar Heels picked apart No. 9 Marquette 95-63.
Caleb Love’s 6⃣ three-pointers tie the most by a Tar Heel in any NCAA Tournament game in history.
…. and this picture is gold. pic.twitter.com/OXyUP6ewb1
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) March 17, 2022
Despite being seeded in the middle of the pack, the Heels looked more like a top-seed in their tournament opener, racing out to a huge first half lead. Caleb assisted on the first bucket of the game for North Carolina and followed with his first three as they tipped off the game with a 5-0 lead.
Marquette scored eight of the next 10 points in the game, but UNC followed with a 20-2 run to make it 27-10 and put the Golden Eagles completely on their heels. Caleb credited UNC’s defensive presence with giving them the opportunities to get the offense going.
“We pride ourselves on the defensive ends and we saw that we could turn them over and make them take bad shots. That contributed to that run,” he said. “My competitive nature and my team’s competitive nature came out. We played it smart and we came out with the win, that’s all I care about.”
Caleb knocked down all six of his made threes in the first half and scored 21 of his 23 points in the opening 20 minutes. By halftime, UNC was more than doubling Marquette on the scoreboard, leading 53-25.
It was academic from there as UNC even got some run for their second teamers at the end of the one-sided victory. UNC moves on to a tough matchup with defending National Champion Baylor Bears.
