Depth. Bench points. Perimeter scoring.
These are terms you wouldn’t associate for a UNC team that hasn’t beaten a ranked team since January 10, but you wouldn’t know that from watching the Tar Heels on Tuesday night.
The 19th-ranked Tar Heels (21-9, 11-6 in the ACC) received a career-high 15 points from Joel Berry and rolled past Georgia Tech 81-49 on Senior Night at McCamish Pavilion. Justin Jackson added 13 as ten Tar Heels wound up in the scoring column.
Justin Jackson added 13 points for the Tar Heels, who shot 53.1 percent from the field.
With the win, UNC remains one-half game behind Louisville for fourth place in the ACC. The top four teams in the ACC regular season received double byes for next week’s ACC Tournament. If the season ended now, UNC would have to win four games to win the ACC Tournament and begin play Wednesday.
The Yellow Jackets, playing its final game of the regular season, go into the ACC Tournament having lost eight of its last ten to fall to 12-18.
The Tar Heels have now beaten Georgia Tech six consecutive times.
Georgia Tech, already playing without starting forward Quinton Stephens and a limited Josh Heath (who was ill), lost leading scorer Marcus Georges-Hunt to a right foot injury before the first TV time out. For the rest of the night, Tech was swimming upstream.
Tech made seven turnovers on its first 13 possessions, and UNC scored ten points off those miscues. Berry tied his career-high of eight points just ten minutes into the game.
UNC scored 21 points off turnovers in the first half, while Georgia Tech has 21 points in the first half period. Nine players scored for the Heels in the first half, led by Berry’s 11 points. Berry finished 3-of-5 from 3-point range, the first multiple 3-point game of his career.
UNC’s top three scorers (Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks) combined for only six points, yet Carolina still led 39-21 at the break.
While Marcus Paige was quiet offensively (finishing with seven points), he set a new career-high with six steals.
Tech didn’t make a serious threat in the second half, never getting the deficit below 20 points in the final eleven minutes. Charles Mitchell finished with 16 points.
From a UNC perspective, the biggest development in the second half may have been the return of Theo Pinson to the lineup. Pinson, who entered the game with 3:21 remaining, saw his first action since January 21 against Wake Forest, when he suffered a broken bone in his left foot. Pinson scored five points, including a three-pointer.
The Tar Heels now focus its attention on a rematch with Duke on Saturday night at the Smith Center. Coverage on 97.9 FM WCHL begins at 7 o’clock with the UNC Healthcare Countdown to Tipoff presented by Stanley Martin Homes. Tipoff is at 9.
You can find a box score to the game here.
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