For as much credit as the No. 6 UNC men’s basketball team receives for its high-powered offensive attack, it was the Tar Heels’ defensive intensity during Sunday’s home opener that helped them silence a talented Chattanooga squad on the way to a 97-57 blowout victory.
Six players scored in double figures for head coach Roy Williams, as UNC showed off a balanced system that in many ways mirrors how last year’s team played. The Tar Heels assisted on 26 of their 34 made shots, while outscoring Chattanooga by 29 points in the second half.
Early on, however, the Mocs—a No. 12 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament and the preseason favorite to win the Southern Conference—gave UNC all it could handle.
Sophomore guard Kenny Williams set new career highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals–all while leading the charge in defensive intensity. (Todd Melet)
Trailing by three points midway through the first half, the Tar Heels turned up the intensity level quite a bit—diving for loose balls, reaching for steals and creating plenty of chaos for their opponents.
From there, UNC closed the half on a 21-7 run and never looked back.
Junior point guard Joel Berry, who led UNC with 18 points and five assists, was quick to point out what made the team so successful against a tough opponent.
“I just think it’s defense,” Berry said. “That’s always the key. If everyone on defense is talking and getting after it, being in the right spots and everything—I just think that picks up the whole game.
“We want to get steals,” he continued. “We want the [other] team to turnover the ball so we can run the other way.”
“We did that, and they got tired really fast.”
UNC forced Chattanooga into 26 turnovers, while picking up 33 points as a direct result. As a team, the Tar Heels also combined for 14 steals—a superb accomplishment considering that Chattanooga fields a starting lineup consisting of five experienced seniors.
Sophomore guard Kenny Williams finished with a team-high three steals while making a number of hustle plays that kept the crowd into the game.
Although senior Nate Britt started in place of Williams—who started on Friday against Tulane—the Virginia native showed drastic improvement in this game, finishing with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists in just 20 minutes.
Not surprisingly, this earned him great praise from his head coach later on.
“He made us feel like in the preseason that he was our best perimeter defender,” Coach Williams said of Kenny Williams. “So he really does some [good] things.”
Glancing down at his box score, the coach couldn’t help but add on.
“Four-for-seven [shooting], six rebounds, 11 points, five assists, one turnover, three steals,” he said, rattling off Williams’ stat line. “That’s a Danny Green type of stat sheet right there, where you’re involved in a lot of good things.”
Despite earning an upset win over Tennessee on Friday, Chattanooga struggled mightily to score the ball as forward Tre’ McLean—the Preseason Southern Conference Player of the Year—was held completely scoreless.
Down low, freshman Tony Bradley showed Tar Heel fans once again that he has all the potential to be a game-changer. He had 12 points and eight rebounds in just 15 minutes against Chattanooga. (Todd Melet)
The Tar Heel big man trio of Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks and freshman Tony Bradley each did their part on defense to help keep Chattanooga from finding a comfort zone down low.
Offensively, Meeks posted a double-double, Hicks again played solid without fouling, and Bradley turned quite a few heads himself–as he used his 7-foot-5 wingspan to put up 12 points and eight rebounds in limited time off the bench.
“I’m not going overboard on Tony,” Coach Williams said. “I don’t think he’s as fundamentally sound as he needs to be, just in the basics.
“But you love the package,” he continued. “And he wants to get better and he wants to learn. He’s absorbing so many things because we’re throwing 1000 things at him—but he’s really doing a nice job with that.”
As great as it is for the Tar Heels to have new players stepping up into productive roles on offense, this team’s long-term potential could ultimately be decided by how well it plays when it doesn’t have the ball.
If Sunday was any indication of how UNC can play defense against quality competition, the future could be very bright in Chapel Hill.
“I asked [the players] after the game to think of the real good moments in the game,” Williams said. “It was all sparked by hustle, diving on the floor, loose balls, guarding people and those kinds of things.”
Up Next:
It will be a quick turnaround yet again for the Tar Heels, as they take Monday off before returning to the Smith Center floor on Tuesday to take on Long Beach State.
Game Notes:
- UNC has won 15 consecutive home openers.
- The 40-point margin is UNC’s largest since beating East Carolina by 44 on Dec. 7, 2014.
- Kennedy Meeks–who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds–became the 73rd Tar Heel to score 1,000 career points. UNC has more 1,000-point scorers in its history than any school in the nation.
- Kenny Williams posted career-highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
