Making a return to ACC play on Saturday night at the Smith Center after a non-conference win over Northeastern earlier in the week, the UNC men’s basketball team put forth a dominant performance in a 99-54 blowout victory over the Louisville Cardinals.

Although Louisville has been among the ACC’s most talented teams for much of the season, the Cardinals (11-5, 6-4 ACC) looked a lot like a team that hadn’t played a game in nearly three weeks—with this their first game since Feb. 1.

The Tar Heels (14-7, 8-5 ACC) were much more active right from the jump on Saturday, looking like a team that sought out an opponent on Twitter earlier in the week because it wanted to play so bad.

Freshman guard Kerwin Walton sank four of his five three-pointers and tallied 14 of his career-high 19 points in the first half, as UNC built a commanding 48-29 halftime lead.

Forward Day’Ron Sharpe—another talented Tar Heel freshman—also had 12 of his team-high 21 points in the first half on a night where head coach Roy Williams’ team looked as efficient on offense as it has all season long. 

“Most of it was Kerwin and Day’Ron,” Williams told reporters afterwards. “Kerwin made four out of five in one stretch there and then took it to the basket and made one off the dribble and drive in the open floor as well. 

“I’ve said all along that I think our freshmen are going to be good players,” he added. “But my request is to do it during my life time. Today it was in the first half, so I hope I get to see more of that before I kick out.” 

Williams has often criticized his young team’s assist to turnover ratio, but the Tar Heels were locked in against Louisville. All 10 of UNC’s primary rotation players recorded at least one assist, while the team set a new season-high with 29 assists and turned the ball over just 11 times.

The Tar Heels also shot a season-best 61 percent from the floor and racked up their two highest scoring halves of the season in what was by far their most impressive showing to date.

Louisville never threatened to come closer in the second half, as UNC used the final minutes of the game to practice alley-oops on the fast break—a perfect metaphor to describe how easy the Tar Heels made this win look. 

“We shot the ball well, which we haven’t done very often this year,” Williams said. “And we didn’t turn it over very much, 29 [assists], 11 [turnovers]. Those are the kind of things that we’ve been trying to emphasize more than anything. But, again, we caught a team that didn’t have their game legs today.” 

Up Next:

A non-conference home game against Marquette–which was just scheduled Saturday afternoon–awaits the Tar Heels on Wednesday. Tip-off for that game is set for 7 p.m.

Game Notes:

  • Freshmen accounted for 71 of UNC’s 99 points, a new program record.
  • This was the second-largest ACC win the Tar Heels have had with Roy Williams as head coach.
  • The 45-point margin of victory was also the largest UNC has ever had in 23 games all-time against Louisville.
  • Louisville shot just 32.8 percent for the game, the second-lowest by any Tar Heel opponent this season behind only UNLV (29.0 percent). The Cardinals connected on just one of their 16 attempts from three-point range.
  • All four of UNC’s big men scored in double figures, with Armando Bacot (14 points), Garrison Brooks (12 points) and Walker Kessler (10 points) adding to Day’Ron Sharpe’s total of 21.

 

 

FINAL BOX SCORE

 

 

Photo via Robert Willett (ACC Media)

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