Throughout their 7-0 start to the college basketball season, junior point guard Joel Berry and the rest of the third-ranked Tar Heels have admitted they’ve been wanting some tougher competition.
They found it Wednesday night up in Bloomington–as the No. 13 Indiana Hoosiers handed UNC its first loss by a score of 76-67, in a game that was much uglier than the final score suggests.
Playing in front of a raucous home crowd, Indiana (5-1) immediately jumped all over the Tar Heels (7-1).
As the Hoosiers built a 17-point lead midway through the first half—all while dominating UNC in every way imaginable—it was tough to picture how this was the same team that lost to Fort Wayne just over a week ago.
Sophomore forward O.G. Anunoby led Indiana with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor. (AP Photo/ Darron Cummings)
With Berry on the bench thanks to two early fouls, UNC went one stretch of over seven minutes without making a single shot from the floor. Justin Jackson—who finished with 21 points and four three-pointers for the Tar Heels—was UNC’s only consistent offensive option.
After trailing by 12 at halftime, the Tar Heels kept fighting. But the Hoosiers had an answer for every move.
On all but one occasion that UNC cut its deficit to eight points—something that happened six times over the final 20 minutes—the Hoosiers made a play that extended the lead and sent their fans into a frenzy.
It was, all things considered, a night to forget for head coach Roy Williams and company.
“One team really played right from the get-go and the second one did not—and that was us,” Williams said after the game. “We were not ready for the intensity, the enthusiasm or anything that you want to talk about in the first half.
“It was a wonderful crowd, gosh,” the coach continued. “I’d like to play in front of a crowd like that at the Smith Center every now and then, other than the freakin’ Duke game.”
The sophomore frontcourt tandem of O.G. Anunoby and Thomas Bryant caused all kinds of problems for the Tar Heels down low, as the trio of Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks and Tony Bradley each finished the game with at least four fouls.
Defensively, the Hoosiers limited UNC to its worst offensive performance of the season by consistently double-teaming the Tar Heel post players—forcing either turnovers or poor shot choices.
Meeks—who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds—was the only other UNC player to join Jackson in double figures. Indiana, meanwhile, saw its entire starting lineup score at least that much—if not more.
Both offensively and defensively, the Hoosiers executed their game plan to perfection on the way to yet another signature victory after defeating Kansas in their season opener.
“They were by far more aggressive than we were,” Williams said. “They were quicker and more aggressive driving the ball to the basket. In every phase of the game, they were more aggressive and competitive than we were.”
Isaiah Hicks scored just seven points against Indiana, while fouling out for the first time this season. (AP Photo/ Darron Cummings)
Although UNC shot just 39 percent from the field and converted on only 13 of its 22 attempts from the free throw line on Wednesday, much of the team’s offensive inefficiency stemmed from Indiana’s defense on Berry.
Usually the head of the Tar Heels’ balanced attack from the point guard position, the Florida native was held to just eight points and eight assists—including a miserable 3-for-13 shooting performance. Coupled with the early foul trouble, Berry was unable to put the team on his back at any point during the night.
“They just came out and wanted it more,” Berry said. “They were just fighting better and competing more than we were.
“Once we found ourselves in a hole, we tried to come back—and got it to [within] four—but by then I felt like it was just too late,” he added. “They just came out and attacked us.”
With the way the Tar Heels played in a primetime environment that somewhat resembled a tournament atmosphere, it’s understandable why Williams was so upset with his team afterward.
This game provided the elite-level competition UNC wanted, but the challenge proved to be just a little too tough to conquer at this point in the season.
For all the anger he let out regarding his team’s intensity levels, however, Williams showed how long he’s been in the business by taking perspective on what this means for UNC in the big picture.
“You’re not going to see how we respond against the next opponent,” Williams said. “You’re gonna see how we respond over the next three, five, seven or 10 [opponents].
“I told the guys, ‘We have 19 more games against teams just like that, which will play just as aggressively as that team did.”
Up Next:
After playing six of their first eight games away from home, the Tar Heels return to the Smith Center this Sunday for a home game against Radford (3-4).
Game Notes:
- Jackson’s four three-pointers for UNC tied a career-high.
- The Tar Heels never trailed during their run to the Maui Invitational Championship last week. They trailed for the entirety of this game.
- The 67 points are the least that UNC has scored in a game this season.
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