Cade Tyson scored a season-high 23 points to lead Carolina past La Salle 93-67 at the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon. Tyson came into the game with just 24 total points on the season.

“It felt great. I thought it was a good team win,” Tyson said afterward. “I thought my teammates did a great job of setting me up and putting me in the right spots.”

“He shot it with confidence,” said R.J. Davis. “And we were unselfish enough to find him. We have a lot of trust in Cade. He’s been putting in a lot of effort and hard work into practice, and he was able to showcase it tonight. We’re gonna need more of that going forward.”

Tyson’s five made three-pointers also surpassed his season total of four. R.J. Davis (13 points), Seth Trimble (10 points) and Ven-Allen Lubin (10 points) each also reached double figures. The Tar Heels spread the scoring around, as 12 different players scored. As a team, Carolina finished 36-67 (53.7 percent) from the floor, its best showing since shooting 59 percent against American on November 15. UNC also finished with 22 assists, tying its season high.

“I felt like, maybe the last three or four games, we weren’t consistently making the extra pass,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “And I felt like today we did.”

Lubin’s strong game helped Carolina control the paint. UNC outrebounded the Explorers 47-36 (its highest rebound total of the season) and outscored La Salle 50-20 in the paint.

“We haven’t been rewarding the bigs enough,” Trimble said. “We haven’t rewarded them for anything. These bigs, they can score in the post. They’re very talented players. We knew we had to get them more touches.”

Davis noted the elevated level of ball movement was based on an especially vocal practice.

“I turned up the level of me,” the head coach said. “There’s no more ‘My bad, I’ll get it the next possession.’ Every possession counts.”

Carolina is now 6-4 overall. The Tar Heels will be back in action when they face No. 9 Florida at the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Gators are 10-0 this season.

“I feel good about the space we’re in right now,” R.J. Davis said. “I feel like we’re moving in the right direction for us to continue to win some games and do it together. That’s the main message right now.”

 

Featured image via Todd Melet

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