Having stared death right in the eyes during their tight NCAA Tournament Second Round win over Arkansas last weekend, the top-seeded Tar Heels came out with new life in their Sweet 16 showdown against No. 4 seed Butler on Friday night.
UNC wasted no time asserting its dominance in all phases of the game, as it advanced to the Elite Eight with a 92-80 victory over the Bulldogs at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
Point guard Joel Berry appeared to be at 100 percent following a recent ankle injury, pouring in a team-high 26 points for the Tar Heels while shooting an efficient 8-for-13 from the floor.
Joel Berry scored a team-high 26 points for the Tar Heels, after struggling last week with an ankle injury. (Todd Melet)
Junior wing Justin Jackson also snapped out of his recent slump and showed why he was a consensus First Team All-American selection, supplementing Berry’s scoring with 24 points, five rebounds and five assists.
It wasn’t Berry or Jackson, however, that was the team’s difference maker.
That moniker would better suit sophomore forward Luke Maye, who was sporting a patchy beard that may or may not have been key to his success.
Maye helped the Tar Heels jump out to a 16-point halftime lead by tallying 14 points and nine rebounds in the first half. He did all this in just ten minutes off the bench, entering the game after Isaiah Hicks picked up his second foul.
A native of Huntersville, North Carolina–and just a three-star recruit coming out of high school–Maye ultimately finished with a career-high 16 points and 12 rebounds, including a trio of three-pointers.
He also became the first Tar Heel to record his first career double-double in the NCAA Tournament since a man named Julius Peppers did it back in 2001.
Head coach Roy Williams told reporters after the game about a phone exchange he had while recruiting Maye, who initially signed with UNC with intentions of being a walk-on during his first year.
“I called Luke one night and told him, ‘I want you to go in and ask your mom and dad if you can have just a thousand dollars to go to the beach and blow it this weekend,'” Williams said. “He said, ‘Coach, I don’t know if I can do that.’
“Then I said, ‘Well tell them I just gave you a $25,000 scholarship for the next year,” the coach added. “I always thought Luke was gonna be good.”
Luke Maye’s contributions in the first half made all the difference for the Tar Heels on Friday. (Todd Melet)
Hicks–with nine–was the only other UNC player to score more than five points in the game, a feat he was able to accomplish before fouling out with just under four minutes to play.
Butler was led by 21 points from senior forward Andrew Chrabascz, who left the court in tears following his final collegiate game.
He was one of only three Bulldogs in double figures, as the Tar Heel defense did a much better job of stopping dribble penetration than it has throughout much of the year.
There simply wasn’t enough firepower for Butler to battle back once UNC put them in the big hole early on.
Arkansas battled back from a similar deficit against the Tar Heels last Sunday by forcing turnovers and getting off-nights from both Berry and Jackson.
That wasn’t happening in this game, as the two UNC stars combined to hit key shot after key shot in the second half any time it appeared Butler was finding some momentum.
Justin Jackson snapped out of a recent slump to pour in 24 points for the Tar Heels against Butler. (Todd Melet)
As important as Maye was in building the lead, Berry and Jackson were just as important when it came to holding on to it.
The Bulldogs never brought the lead within 11 after halftime, and trailed by as many as 20 points.
The end result means UNC is now halfway to its goal of the program’s first national title since 2009.
Should the Tar Heels continue to have their stars clicking the way they were Friday, there’s not too many teams in the country capable of stopping that dream from becoming reality.
“At this stage of the year if you don’t have good offensive games or good defensive games you go home,” Williams said. “But we do need to be clicking a little bit, on all cylinders.
“We only had three guys in double figures today, but one had 26 and the other had 24,” he continued. “That’s pretty good. We do need both of them making shots, and doing things for us.”
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will return to action on Sunday night to face either No. 2 Kentucky or No. 3 UCLA in the South Regional Final.
Game Notes:
- UNC has advanced to the Elite Eight in 13 of its last 14 trips to the Sweet 16.
- During the first half, Justin Jackson became the first Tar Heel to make 100 three-pointers in a single season.
- Villanova forward Kris Jenkins–the brother of UNC guard Nate Britt, who sank the Tar Heels national championship hopes last season with his buzzer beating three-pointer–was in attendance.
- The 52 points UNC scored in the first half were the most Butler allowed in a single half all season.
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