No. 9 UNC Gets Back on Track, Demolishes Pittsburgh 85-64

Since the calendar turned over to February, the No. 9 UNC men’s basketball team has seen its 13-game win streak end, lost twice, and had its head coach get sick during a sloppy win over the ACC’s worst team.

On Sunday, the team gave its fans the perfect Valentine’s Day gift—a return to form in a 85-64 blowout over the Pittsburgh Panthers.

Roy Williams came out of the tunnel at the Smith Center before tip-off and received a loud ovation from a crowd excited to see him back healthy on the sideline.

Then Williams’ team reversed its recent trends and put together a dominant effort–both on offense and defense–against the Panthers, who fall to 17-7 overall and 6-6 in the ACC after opening the year 14-1.

UNC is now 21-4 with the win, and remains alone atop the conference with a 10-2 mark in league play, despite the February struggles.

“Both road games—at Notre Dame and at Louisville—we had a chance to win,” Williams said afterwards. “At Boston College we had a chance to win, and did, but they had a chance to win too. To me, that’s more of what you see in the ACC.

“There’s no question if you score 85 and win by [this] margin, everybody’s happy,” he added.

Not everything went perfect for the Tar Heels on Sunday, especially on the backboards—as Pittsburgh won the rebounding battle 41-29, including a 19-1 edge in offensive boards.

But that can partly be attributed to the fact that UNC shot a season-high 59 percent, a far cry from the sub 40-percent numbers that hampered the team during its slump.

The Tar Heels also assisted on 26 of their 32 made shots, had five players score in double figures, and used a 13-0 run in the second half to put the game out of reach.

“The ball went in the basket,” Williams said. “It’s really pretty simple, because we’ve had some really good shots that we haven’t made.

“I told Brice [Johnson], he missed a layup, and Marcus [Paige] and Joel [Berry], they missed some wide open threes—that you’re gonna miss some shots,” he continued.

“During that [13-0] stretch, the best thing I thought we did was pass the basketball.”

Senior forward Brice Johnson led all scorers with 19 points, while Marcus Paige and Justin Jackson continued to put their problems behind them—combining for 29 points and five three-pointers.

Defensively, the team held Pittsburgh to just 37 percent shooting from the floor and forced a whopping 19 turnovers compared to the two they created in last week’s loss at Notre Dame.

Looking forward to the final six games of the regular season, Paige says this was a critical moment in this group’s development.

“We had talked about how even when we were winning—before we lost those two in a row—how we weren’t playing great basketball,” he said. “We were kinda just scraping by with wins.

“So we just really wanted to buckle down and play harder.”

Up Next:

Next on the schedule for the Tar Heels is the arch-rival Duke Blue Devils, who swept the season series last year on their way to a fifth national title.

Although this year’s Duke team has a lot of fresh faces, the Blue Devils are one of the nation’s most dangerous offensive teams and have beaten two ranked foes—Louisville and Virginia–in the past week.

This makes Sunday’s defensive improvements that much more important heading into the big game.

“[Pittsburgh’s] a lot different than Duke,” Paige said. “But the fact that we locked in and paid attention to detail on the scouting report is good going into a game against Duke where knowing personnel and how they like to attack is very important. And being able to transfer that to the court can be the difference in a game.

“We did a good job of that today,” he added. “And we’re gonna need to do a good job of that on Wednesday too.”

Game Notes:

• Carolina’s one offensive rebound was the fewest in any game in the Roy Williams era at UNC. The previous was four on Dec. 12, 2015 at Texas (the team’s second loss this year).

• UNC had two second-chance points on Sunday (previous low this year was six in a loss at Northern Iowa–the first loss this year).

• Justin Jackson made multiple three-pointers in consecutive games for the first time this season (also 2 for 3 at BC on Feb. 9).
• Joel Berry had 13 points, six rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and two assists. He leads the team with 41 steals, including 19 in the last nine games.

 

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