Carolina dominated No. 19 Kansas in the second half en route an 87-74 win at the Dean Smith Center Friday night. The win is UNC’s first against the Jayhawks since 2002 and snaps a five-game losing streak against them.
“I wanted this new team, this new group, to have evidence of what it’s like to play a game like this in the Smith Center and to come up big,” head coach Hubert Davis said afterward (after changing out of his water-soaked suit). “I just wanted them to have a taste of what it’s like to be here. I won’t remember the score, but I’ll remember them jumping around in the locker room. I’ll remember the smiles on their faces.”
Those smiles came after the Tar Heels trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half. The Jayhawks punished Carolina for sloppy play, outscoring UNC 17-2 in points off turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. Kansas led 37-29 at halftime, with the Tar Heels mired in a 10-30 (33.3 percent) shooting slump.
“Lot of standing, lot of holding, lot of dribbling,” Davis said. “And against a team like Kansas, with their length and their athleticism… it just wasn’t good offense for us.”
“Everybody was talking,” freshman Caleb Wilson said of the halftime locker room. “And that’s what I liked about it. It wasn’t just one person talking. Everybody was passionate about getting the win.”
The Tar Heels exploded out of the gate in the second half, outscoring the Jayhawks 10-2 in the first 2:32 and forcing an early Kansas timeout. But the stoppage did nothing to half the UNC momentum. Carolina came at the Jayhawks in waves, taking a 12-point lead at 58-46 just five minutes after tying the game. Guard Kyan Evans, who had been held scoreless in the first half, made a pair of three-pointers during the run, part of a 12-point second-half performance.
“Kyan is such a good player,” said Henri Veesaar. “We’re all gonna have halves or days when we’re gonna miss, but as long as you play hard, it’s gonna start to fall.”
Buoyed by more outside shots from Jarin Stevenson, Jonathan Powell and Luka Bogavac, Carolina led by as many as 16 points midway through the second half and never let Kansas cut that lead to single digits for the rest of the night. The Jayhawks made only five shots from the floor in the final 10 minutes of action.
As for the turnovers which had dogged Carolina in the first half, the Tar Heels committed only one in the second. That one giveaway didn’t occur until 3:22 remained in the game.
The Tar Heels shot 24-36 (66.7 percent) in the second half, outscoring the Jayhawks 58-37. UNC’s 58 points are the second-most the Jayhawks have allowed in any half in head coach Bill Self’s 23-year tenure. The Tar Heels did not make a substitution for the final 7:49 of the game, keeping its starting quintet of Evans, Trimble, Wilson, Stevenson and Veesaar in for the rest of the night.
“Man, that was a pretty complete second half,” said Seth Trimble, who finished with 17 points. “It was incredible. Everybody stepped up so much.”
“We had great ball and player movement,” Davis said. “That allowed us to find lanes to be able to attack the basket. In the second half, we were pretty good.”
Wilson finished 24 points to lead all scorers, while Veesaar added 20. Wilson is the first Tar Heel ever to score at least 20 points in each of his first two games with the program. Evans scored 12 points, all of which came in the red-hot second half. For Kansas, star freshman Darryn Peterson scored 22 points while being guarded by Trimble for most of the night. Kansas’ second-leading scorer was Bryson Tiller, who scored 12 points on 4-4 three-point shooting. But all of Tiller’s production came in the first half, as the freshman fouled out in the second and watched the final 9:22 of the game from the bench.
“It was a huge point of emphasis to shut him down in the second half,” Trimble said.
Friday’s win improves UNC to 2-0 on the young season. The Tar Heels will be back in action when they host Radford Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Smith Center.
Featured image via Todd Melet. For a full photo gallery of the game, click here.
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.
