UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Squeak Past Pesky Brown

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina basketball team played their second game of the regular season against Brown on Friday night. It was a back-and-forth nip and tuck game for most of the half before Brown went on a run and led by as many as 8 points before intermission. Both teams’ offenses were hot and little defense was played from either team. The Tar Heels shot 56% from the field and Brown shot 60% from the field.

After trailing at halftime, The Tar Heels still struggled to stop Brown’s offense, but the Heels were able to keep the game close until they would go a run and take control of the game. The Tar Heels got timely stops down the stretch and RJ Davis was huge scoring 14 of the UNC’s last 16 points. Carolina also got a huge contribution from Armando Bacot, who was dominant throughout the game and had 22 points and 10 rebounds, leading to their 94-87 win.

UNC Game Stats

			1	2	T
#19 North Carolina	47	47	94
Brown			50	37	87

North Carolina
	Pts	FG	3FG	FT	REB	A	TO	Min	+/-
1 BLACK  7	2-4	0-1	3-4	4	3	1	19	12
2 LOVE 	13	3-9	2-4	5-6	2	5	1	37	6
4 DAVIS	26	9-17	6-9	2-2	2	6	1	36	4
5 BACOT	22	10-11	0-0	2-5	10	1	0	27	14
13 GARCIA 7	3-7	0-2	1-2	6	0	0	20	-4
0 HARRIS 0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	3	4
3 STYLES 0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	3	2
22 MCKOY 0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	6	-3
24 WALTON 5	2-5	1-3	0-0	2	0	0	16	-4
45 MANEK 14	3-9	0-2	8-9	8	1	3	33	4

TOTALS	94	32-62	9-21	21-28	39	16	7	200
				51.6%	42.9%	75.0%

Brown
	Pts	FG	3FG	FT	REB	A	TO	Min	+/-
0 MITCHELL 2	1-1	0-0	0-0	2	0	0	13	3
1 FRIDAY 21	8-14	1-2	4-4	4	5	1	27	-14
22 GAINEY 4	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	11	0
31 OWUSU 20	8-15	2-2	2-4	8	1	2	34	-5
32 WOJCIK 14	7-19	0-5	0-1	6	3	0	36	3
5 MEREN   4	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	9	3
10 LILLY 12	5-8	2-4	0-0	1	3	0	29	-9
11 NDUR   0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	-3
20 FERRARI 0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	0	6	0
21 COOLEY 7	3-8	1-4	0-0	6	0	2	24	-5
23 COWAN  3	1-1	1-1	0-0	1	0	0	10	-8

TOTALS	 87	37-73	7-19	6-9	30	13	5	200
				50.7%	36.8%	66.7%

UNC Bright Spots

R.J. Davis had 26 points, 6 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Armando Bacot had 22 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.

Brady Manek had 14 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 blocks.

Caleb Love had 13 points, 5 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Needs Work

The Tar Heels defense needs to be much better going forward. In this game, they allowed too many easy baskets, open driving lanes, and wide-open shots.

Coach Davis also needs to a do better job of extending his rotation so players will be fresh down the stretch of games.

Final Observations

This was an interesting game for the Tar Heels. I don’t think anybody expected this game to be that close coming into today, but it was a good test for the Heels. This game will help them realize some things that they need to work on that will make them a better team going forward.

The defense was not good in this game and needs to be a focal point in the next few practices to clean up that side of the floor. Otherwise, the team looks good and should continue to get better each game. It will be exciting to see how this North Carolina team will continue to gel and work to reach their full potential. Next up is the College of Charleston on Tuesday.