While shooting woes doomed the No. 2 UNC men’s basketball game in its loss to Louisville on Monday, another of last season’s critical issues—the inability to close out games—resurfaced in Saturday night’s 80-76 loss at Notre Dame.
Despite building a 15-point lead in the first half, the Tar Heels slowly fell apart down the stretch as the Fighting Irish (16-7, 7-4 ACC) rallied to hand them their second consecutive loss following a 12-game win streak.
Now 19-4 this year, UNC falls into a tie atop the ACC standings with Louisville—who banned itself from postseason play—at 8-2 in the conference.
Brice Johnson had 14 points and 14 rebounds, but it was not enough to hold off Notre Dame. (AP Photo/ Robert Frankling)
The Tar Heels finished the game shooting 45 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three-point range, but head coach Roy Williams was not too pleased with the hustle stats.
“Their coach [Mike Brey] did a lot better of a job getting his guys to play with a great deal of intensity than I did,” Williams said after the game. “Look down there and see 19 points off turnovers for them, zero for us. Twenty-three second chance points for them, 13 for us. Thirty-eight foul shots for them, 21 for us.
“I’ve got to do a heck of a lot better getting our club to play with more intensity than we did,” he added.
Those effort plays crippled the Tar Heels on a night where senior guard Marcus Paige finally broke a six-game cold streak by scoring 21 points and nailing five three-pointers—the same amount of long-balls he hit during the entire slump.
Four of those threes sparked his team to the big lead that had them feeling like it had solved its one major issue.
The Fighting Irish simply outworked UNC the rest of the way–leaving Williams unable to explain what happened.
“Right now I don’t know if I can see my hand in front of my face, so I have no idea,” the coach said, after being asked if he liked his team’ intensity level in the first half. “I’ll look at it on tape.”
“It was easy early, and I’ve got a wonderful bunch of kids—but we’ve gotta decide that we wanna compete when it’s tough, not just when it’s easy.”
All five of Notre Dame’s starters scored in double figures, led by 19 each from guard Demetrius Jackson and forward Bonzie Colson. Colson’s partner in the frontcourt, Zach Auguste, had 15 points and 10 rebounds—including one on the offensive end where he grabbed the ball in front of four Tar Heels.
What’s impressive about these stats though, is that as a team the Fighting Irish made under 35 percent of their shots—or about as many as UNC made in its loss to Louisville.
The easy conclusion says the Tar Heels failed to show the killer instinct necessary when they had the chance to close this one out.
Notre Dame forward Zach Auguste dominated the glass all night. (AP Photo/ Robert Franklin)
“Well, you know, the thing about it is—we can get up, but this is a tough league,” Williams said. “It’s not just about us. Notre Dame got up as well.
“The world’s not gonna come to an end, but right now I’m extremely frustrated.”
UNC junior guard Nate Britt sat out of the game with an illness, and it was clear the team could have used his defensive prowess and energy as the game wore on.
And although Brice Johnson picked up a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds, no other Tar Heel had more than four boards.
All of these stats combined help illustrate just how unsettling this loss should be moving forward, but Williams refused to let his players take the blame.
“The head coach didn’t do a very good job,” Williams said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Up Next:
UNC will have a prime opportunity to end this losing streak in its next game–a road contest against the ACC’s last place team, Boston College. That game will take place on Tuesday Feb. 9.
Game Notes:
- Notre Dame’s two turnovers are the fewest against a Roy Williams coached UNC team (previous was four on three occasions).
- Thirty-one made free throws by Notre Dame were the second most by opponents against a Roy Williams coached Tar Heel team.
- Johnson now has 14 double-doubles this season for UNC in 23 games.
