Johnson Benched Early, Responds With 27 Points: No. 11 UNC Beats No. 22 UCLA 89-76

Without the injured Kennedy Meeks, Brice Johnson continues to thrive—as the junior set a new career-high in points for the second straight game on Saturday, scoring 27 to lead the No. 11 UNC men’s basketball team past the No. 22 UCLA Bruins 89-76 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Tar Heels–who played the game decked out in their brand new black, alternate jerseys–move to 9-2 this year after the win.

The Bruins, meanwhile, fall to 8-4 thanks to a second half surge which was spear-headed by Johnson.

Early on UCLA led by as many as 11, getting four three-pointers by guard Isaac Hamilton, who finished with a team-high 23 points. Most of this occurred with Johnson on the end of the bench, where head coach Roy Williams sat him for around nine minutes as a disciplinary measure.

“I kinda used some bad language and Coach was really pissed off at me about it,” Johnson said after the game. “So he sat me for it.

“It put a fire under my butt,” he added. “When I got back in there, I was ready to go.”

Once he came back in, Johnson wreaked havoc on the Bruin frontline the rest of the way—consistently beating his opponents with rim-rocking slams and nifty right-hand jump hooks.

As Marcus Paige struggled, scoring 10 points on just 2-of-9 shooting, Johnson connected on 11 of his 12 shots from the field—even making 11 in a row at one point.

That allowed the Tar Heels to break open what was a tie game at halftime and turn it into a comfortable win.

It also provided Williams with a sight he is continuously looking for.

“Brice’s energy was so much better in the second half,” Williams said. “I almost hugged him and kissed him one time, then I realized who it was.

“[He’s] gotta do that on a more consistent basis,” the coach added.

Junior forward Isaiah Hicks came off the bench to score 12 points for UNC, which dominated UCLA in the paint—beating them 58 to 26 inside.

Guard Joel Berry provided the bulk of the outside scoring for the Tar Heels, putting up 17 points on a day where the team finished just 4-of-19 from behind the three-point line. Afterwards, Berry discussed his team’s mindset as they came out of the locker room before the second half.

“We just wanted to try and get out on ‘em,” Berry said. “And just try to take ‘em away from the jump, and not give them any confidence to try to stay with us.”

The story of the day, though, was Johnson, who set a career-high for the second consecutive game and has clearly asserted himself with Meeks sidelined.

No bench was going to keep him from making his mark on Saturday, even if it did keep him from scoring 30.

“I knew if I got another chance to go in there, I was gonna be able to do what I needed to do,” Johnson said about what he thought as he sat out. “I’m not gonna regret not giving a second a chance, because I did mess up in the beginning of the game. And I gotta stop doing stuff like that”

And as the season progresses into conference play, a consistent Johnson may just be what the doctor ordered for this team.

“The sky’s the limit for us,” he said. “We haven’t been playing great, but we did get a big-time win today outside of our building. Like Coach always says he wants us to be able to get wins outside of the Smith Center.

“We just gotta keep going.”

More photos from UNC vs. UCLA.

Up Next:

UNC will return home for a game at the Smith Center on Monday against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Then the team will take a week-long holiday break before resuming play the following Monday.

Game Notes:

• UCLA guard Bryce Alford, the son of the team’s head coach Steve Alford, scored 15 points in the game, while Bruin big man Tony Parker chipped in 13.
• UNC won the turnover battle by a large margin, losing the ball just eight times compared to UCLA’s 17.
• Despite struggling with his shot, Paige dished out six assists and also grabbed four rebounds.

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