Carolina used a suffocating defensive effort to cruise to a 79-53 win against visiting Cal at the Smith Center on Wednesday night. The Tar Heels are now on a four-game winning streak, their longest of the season.

“This is the first time in a long time where we played defense the entire game,” head coach Hubert Davis said afterward. “At halftime, we said, ‘Are we gonna be able to put two halves together? What kind of team are we gonna be in the second half?'”

Thanks to concerted efforts from both Seth Trimble and Drake Powell, Carolina held Cal’s leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic to a season-low six points. The standout guard, who came into the night averaging more than 20 points per game and hadn’t scored fewer than 10 all season, finished 3-13 from the field and 0-5 on three-pointers. In his previous three games, Stojakovic had scored 30, 23 and 24 points.

“Stojakovic was their main guy,” Trimble said. “He’s an incredible player… everybody took some turns on him. The whole team took pride in guarding him today.”

“Seth was off-the-charts,” Davis said of his ace defender.

Thanks to the efforts of Trimble and Co., Cal slogged to a 24-69 (34.8 percent) shooting performance. At one point, the Bears had missed 14 straight three-pointers in a span of roughly 18 minutes of game time. They finished 3-25 (12 percent) on threes, a season-worst performance from long distance.

On the other side of the floor, Carolina made 16 of its first 26 shots and finished 17-30 (56.7 percent) in the first half. The Tar Heels shot just 14-35 (40 percent) in the second half, but made 10 of 11 free throws and dominated the glass, outrebounding the Bears 28-17 in the final 20 minutes. UNC also held decisive advantages in fast break points (16-2), bench points (26-17) and points off turnovers (10-4).

Freshman guard Ian Jackson led all scorers with 20 points, his seventh 20-point effort this season. Elliot Cadeau added 15 points and Trimble scored 12. The group effort helped Carolina lead by as many as 27 points, even as R.J. Davis scored a season-low seven points. It was the fewest points Davis has scored in a game since February of 2023.

The win moves Carolina to 12-6 overall and 5-1 in ACC play. The Tar Heels will be back in action when they host Stanford at the Smith Center on Saturday at 2:15 p.m.

 

Featured image via Todd Melet. For a photo gallery of the game, click here.

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