In their home opener at the Dean Dome on Sunday afternoon, the No. 1 ranked UNC men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 on the year with a sluggish 92-65 victory against the over-matched Fairfield Stags.
Winners of just seven games last season, Fairfield has now opened this year 0-2. However, the Stags didn’t go down without a fight.
Nate Britt matched his career-highs in both points and three-pointers made against Fairfield. (Todd Melet)
The Tar Heels led by just eight points at halftime, and were still ahead by the same single-digit margin with just 12 minutes to play–before turning up the intensity down the stretch.
UNC head coach Roy Williams, as you might imagine, was not too pleased with how his team played early on.
“Needless to say, the score doesn’t tell the story of the game,” Williams said afterwards. “I thought we had a lack of execution, a lack of effort, and toughness out there early.
“They had all those things that we didn’t have. That gave them a little bit of an emotional lift and I challenged our guys to come out and play better [after halftime].”
Seven Tar Heel players scored at least eight points in a balanced workman-like effort against Fairfield’s zone defense. Leading the way was junior guard Nate Britt, who came off the bench to match a pair of career-highs—scoring 17 points while also draining four shots from behind the three-point line.
Afterwards, though, Britt was in no mood to enjoy those numbers, instead echoing Williams’ sentiments on how this one played out.
“As a whole we just needed to pick up the intensity,” Britt said. “We didn’t come out as intense as we should have, and they were getting all of the 50/50 balls, they were crashing all the boards—and we didn’t do a good job in either one of those categories.
“I wanted our bigs to work a little bit harder on the inside so we could get them the ball,” he continued. “But we took a lot of shots from the outside in the first half and most of them weren’t going down.
(Photos from UNC vs. Fairfield)
“I feel like we did a better job of those things in the second half, and that’s why we were able to pull away.”
Despite the time it took to get the ball rolling, senior forward Brice Johnson finshed with a double-double, posting 16 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore wing Theo Pinson also played a big role, stuffing the stat sheet with 11 points, eight assists, and five rebounds.
But many of those numbers came after Coach Williams laid into his team at the break—something Pinson’s fellow sophomore, Justin Jackson, described to the media.
“Coach really challenged us, [saying] ‘If we really love this game, then why are we not playing like it?’ Jackson said. “I think if we play defense like we’re supposed to—obviously on offense we have a ton of weapons, so that’s not a problem—but if we play defense like we’re supposed to and finish it, I think we’ll be alright.”
Roy Williams gives his team a much-needed pep talk. (Todd Melet)
Fairfield was led by senior forward Marcus Gilbert, who poured in 25 points as one of only two Stags to score at least 10 points.
Joel Berry added 15 points and four assists for the Tar Heels starting in place of the injured Marcus Paige at point guard, while Jackson added 11, and junior forward Kennedy Meeks scored eight–grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds in the process.
Despite the early woes, a win is a win no matter how it comes. Williams says he thinks his team will be fine in the long run, but added that the lack of energy Sunday was definitely unsettling.
“It was a surprise to me because it was [the] home opener,” the coach said. “I think we were all so excited about the football win yesterday, maybe we still had that glory in our heads, instead of going out there and playing.”
“I was beginning to wonder if we were gonna score as many as our football team scores.”
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will continue play in the CBE Hall-of-Fame Classic on Wednesday, as they’ll remain at home to take on the Wofford Terriers. Tip-off for that game will be at 7 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Carolina is now 99-7 all-time in its home openers, and has now won its last 14 of them.
- Pinson’s 11 points and eight assists were each career-highs.
- Britt is shooting 70 percent from beyond the arc so far, knocking down 7 of his 10 attempts from long range in the team’s first two games.
- The Tar Heels out-scored Fairfield, 22-0, in points off turnovers. That’s the first time since Jan. 3, 2015, at Clemson, that UNC did not allow a point off a turnover. Carolina has committed just 19 turnovers in the first two games.
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