Coming into the season, Jalen Washington was supposed to be the committee leader on giving the Tar Heels some presence in the paint. After all, he was starting his third year as a Tar Heel.
It took a while, and after Washington started the first eight games, Hubert Davis was still looking for someone else to play that role and went to undersized Vanderbilt transfer Ven-Allen Lubin for the next four games.
But when Davis seemed to settle on his four-guard lineup that includes freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell plus Elliot Cadeau and R.J. Davis, the head coach put the 6-foot-10 Washington back in as the starter with added responsibility and pressure.
In the close loss at Louisville, “J-Wash” had 7 points and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes. At Notre Dame, he finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. He didn’t score and took only one shot in the big win over SMU — but added 4 blocks, which gave him 10 in his last four starts. Then came the trip to N.C. State, which serves as his true break-out game for the season and his college career as Carolina improved to 11-6 and 4-1 in the ACC.
In the Heels’ second straight win at the Lenovo Center (now 20-6 in the building), Washington played 26:39 minutes and had his first college double-double with 11 points and a team-high 12 rebounds, plus three blocks, the last of which we’ll talk about for a long time.
“Being resilient,” he said after ending the 63-61 victory by swatting away the Wolfpack’s last chance to tie the game. “I probably didn’t start the year off the way that I wanted to, but the season was going to be full of highs and lows. Being resilient and doing the same thing every day got me to this position. I have been working hard and keeping my mental balance.”
He showed balance on both ends of the court in the last minute of a tense and sometimes ugly win that J-Wash turned into pure beauty.
Coming out of a timeout with the score tied at 61, the play Hubert drew up fell apart as the shot clock wound down and Elliot Cadeau was being pressured with the ball and his back to the basket: a turnover waiting to happen. Washington slid into a position on the baseline that allowed Cadeau to see him and toss an over-the-shoulder pass. With one long step to the basket, J-Wash flushed the two-handed dunk.
“Elliot made an incredible pass,” said the Gary, Indiana, product. “I went to the open spot. He made the pass and I was able to finish.”
After a State timeout, he was in position again as the Wolfpack’s Jayden Taylor (who scored all 12 of his points in the second half) lofted a 12-footer to the basket that Washington leaped for just in time and blocked it away as the buzzer sounded. Game over.
Washington’s rim protection has provided a different element to UNC’s defense during this early stretch of ACC play. (Photo via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
“He was going for a floater and wasn’t getting all the way to the rim. I jumped up and knew I was gonna get it,” said Washington who was doused with water in the happy locker room after some players in their throwback blue uniforms waived goodbye to State fans.
Cadeau’s pass was his 11th assist, which made him the first Tar Heel with at least 10 at least three times since Kendall Marshall had 23 games with 10-plus assists from 2010-2012.
The overall star of the game was Jackson, who scored 21 (his fifth 20-point game in the last six), including a season-high five 3-pointers, four in the second half that increased Carolina’s lead early and put UNC back ahead after State had rallied to hold a one point lead. He had 16 points in the second half to follow up his 15 in the second half against SMU.
How fast is Jackson coming on?
Besides being the only Tar Heel to make at least one trey in every game he has played this season, Jackson is the first freshman to make multiple 3-pointers in six straight games since Kerwin Walton’s nine-game stretch in 2020-21. He has scored 139 points in the last six games, the second most by any freshman since Harrison Barnes scored 140 in six straight of the 2010-11 season.
R.J. Davis continues to be dogged and double-teamed by opponents and is still shooting under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from the arc. But he remains unselfish, becoming the first Tar Heel since Marcus Paige to have 500 career assists. He scored 11 points, missing both 3-pointers in the first half but hitting a big one in the second that repelled State’s first come back.
Seth Trimble did not start and still played almost 25 minutes, netting 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Powell had 8 points, 3 rebounds and a block in his 34 minutes.
Lubin got 13-plus minutes and made good use of them, pulling down 9 rebounds. Jae’Lyn Withers played only four scoreless minutes and grabbed 2 rebounds. No other big man got in as Davis is apparently cutting down his regular rotation to eight. Cade Tyson did not play for the second straight game.
Much of the game was a rock fight with both teams shooting record low percentages in the first half. State hit 23 percent and improved to 60 after halftime. The Wolfpack went 3 for 19 from outside, a truly terrible 16 percent. Carolina won by crafting 6-point advantages in the paint and on fast breaks.
“We’ve got to do a better job in the second half, allowing them to shoot 60 percent from the field and getting 16 offensive rebounds for the game,” said Davis, who is now 47-18 in ACC play as a head coach. “But we hung in there and we always talk about is whatever it takes. And so whatever it took for us to come away with a win, these guys did it.
“It’s playing with more confidence and assurance on the floor, and you can see it growing, defensively, blocking and altering shots over the last three or four games has been huge for us. So now we are having a presence in the paint that doesn’t allow teams to get easy points.
“Our identity has been set on the offensive end from the beginning of the season,” Davis added. “You know, the way our pace is and how we score in transition. We want to dominate the paint through post and penetration. It’s also trying to find an identity on the defensive end.
Photo via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.
“The next part of our identity is putting two halves together. We talked in the huddle that we were in the same situation against UCLA. All we needed was a stop to win. And I said, you know, let’s do it again. And they stepped up and did it again.”
In avoiding two straight losses to State for the first time since 2003, Carolina scored more points in the second half than the first for the 15th time in 17 games. The win gave Davis a 6-2 record against the Wolfpack and moved UNC overall to 103-40 in ACC games, 47-31 in Raleigh. The old rivals meet again on February 19 in Chapel Hill, where Carolina holds a 58-13 advantage.
Featured image via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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