An explosive first half Monday night at the Smith Center helped guide the seventh-ranked UNC men’s basketball team to a 90-72 blowout victory over the visiting Stanford Cardinal—as the Tar Heels overcame a sluggish second half performance to come out with the win.
Eight different players scored at least one basket in the first half for UNC, which shot 60 percent in the period on the way to a commanding 52-26 lead at halftime.
Senior forward Luke Maye had 14 of his 16 points in the first 20 minutes, while classmate Kenny Williams broke out of his mini-slump to rack up nine of his 12 points over the same course of action.
The Tar Heels also received a huge momentum boost when freshman wing Nassir Little—who scored all eight of his points in the first half—threw down a thunderous alley-oop assisted by teammate Seventh Woods.
UNC head coach Roy Williams was extremely unhappy with the way the Tar Heels performed in the second half of Monday’s win over Stanford. (Todd Melet)
Picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12 before the season, Stanford missed plenty of open shots and turned the ball over eight times before halftime.
This aided what appeared like a potential 40-point blowout victory for UNC.
When the teams came out of the locker rooms for the second half, however, it was a completely different picture.
The Tar Heels went on cruise control the rest of the way, especially on defense. Stanford created all 15 of its free throw opportunities in the second half, and routinely got past the UNC defense for high-percentage shot attempts.
Although the first-half damage was enough to allow the Tar Heels to hang on to the win rather comfortably, head coach Roy Williams was less than pleased with his team’s performance.
When asked whether it was attention to detail or effort that plagued his team late in the game, Williams did not waste words.
“Having a brain,” the coach told reporters. “Attention to detail. Effort sometimes because we didn’t push the ball very hard. We jogged it up the court and didn’t get back on defense.
“It was a lot of negative stuff out there,” Williams added.
While the man in charge was having problems finding positives to take from the game, some of his veteran leaders chose to put the situation into perspective based on what their coach was seeing.
Cameron Johnson led the Tar Heels with 17 points against Stanford. (Todd Melet)
Graduate transfer Cameron Johnson—one of the team’s three seniors alongside Maye and Kenny Williams—led the Tar Heels with 17 points against Stanford, with nine of them coming in the first half.
His evaluation of where the team is at through three games was a message he said that he and the other seniors need to get across to the team as soon as possible.
“We’ve got a long ways to go, but I think we’ve done some good things so far,” Johnson said. “I think the first half we did a really good job. And I think we just need to play like that all the time.
“Second half against Elon, we did a really good job,” he continued. “There was points in the Wofford game we executed well. So, just kind of carrying that over and putting together for 40 [minutes] is what we need to do.”
Maye delivered similar sentiments when describing his coach’s mood in the locker room after the game, recognizing that while it’s nice to get a win—this kind of performance won’t necessarily work as the competition level rises later in the year.
“He kind of made a point that this is not gonna get it done—especially in this league,” Maye said, about Williams’ message to the team. “You gotta play a full game. You can’t get all excited after one half.”
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will remain at the Smith Center for their next game, which is set for this Friday against Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Stanford outscored the Tar Heels 46-38 in the second half.
- UNC has now won its last 17 home openers.
- This marks the second straight year that the Tar Heels have beaten Stanford, after picking up a 96-72 victory at Maples Pavilion back on Nov. 20, 2017.
- It was also the second straight game that UNC had all 15 players on its roster receive playing time.
- Kenny Williams entered the night having scored just one point over UNC’s first two games.
Cover photo via Todd Melet
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