UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Fall Short Down the Stretch

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina basketball team looked to get its fourth straight win on Saturday afternoon against the Florida State Seminoles. The Tar Heels got down early in the game, allowing Florida State to get comfortable on the offensive end with open threes and straight-line drives to the basket. The Heels struggled to get into their offense and their effort on the defensive end was very poor in stretches of the game.

The Tar Heels did go on an 18-5 run to take the lead late in the first half before allowing Florida State to take the lead back going into halftime. Early in the second half, UNC did not take care of the ball with 8 turnovers in the second half alone and they took poor shots on offense.  This allowed Florida State to extend its lead to 10.

After a timeout, UNC battled back to get the game within two points but was never able to take the lead. This was due to miscues on the offensive end of the floor with turnovers, bad shot selection, and the inability to get stops on defense. One bright spot was that Anthony Harris returned in this game and gave some good minutes providing energy on both sides of the floor with his scoring, decision-making, and stifling on-the-ball defense. However, the Tar Heels were just not able to overcome their mistakes, which led to their 82-75 loss. North Carolina was led in scoring by R.J. Davis with 16 points and 4 rebounds.

UNC Game Stats

1	2	T
North Carolina	37	38	75
Florida State	41	41	82

North Carolina
	       PTS	FG	3FG	FT     REB      A      TO      MIN     +/-
1 BLACK		0	0-3	0-1	0-0	4	3	2	20     -10
2 LOVE		11	4-10	3-6	0-0	2	0	4	21     -12
5 BACOT		9	3-6	0-0	3-5	5	1	0	17     -10
15 BROOKS	12	3-5	0-0	6-7	1	3	2	33	1
24 WALTON	14	5-13	4-10	0-0	2	2	2	29	-8
0 HARRIS	5	2-2	1-1	0-0	0	3	0	9	10
3 PLATEK	2	1-6	0-2	0-0	1	2	0	19	2
4 DAVIS		16	6-9	2-3	2-2	4	3	1	20	0
11 SHARPE	6	3-7	0-0	0-0	6	2	2	22	0
13 KESSLER	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	8	-4
14 JOHNSON	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	0	1	2	-4
TOTALS		75	27-62	10-24	11-14	29	19	14
			43.5	41.7	78.6

Florida State
		PTS	FG	3FG	FT	REB	A	TO	MIN	+/-
0 EVANS		10	3-9	0-0	4-4	1	4	3	31	4
1 GRAY		19	6-10	0-1	7-7	4	5	3	30	4
2 POLITE	5	1-2	1-2	2-2	1	0	2	27	3
5 KOPRIVICA	10	3-4	0-0	4-4	9	0	2	30	7
23 WALKER	21	6-11	4-5	5-6	3	3	3	32	7
10 OSBORNE	10	3-5	2-3	2-2	2	0	1	15	4
11 JACK		0	0-2	0-2	0-0	0	0	1	2	-2
24 CALHOUN	3	1-5	1-2	0-0	1	0	1	16	13
31 WILKES	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	3	0	1	10	-4
34 NGOM		4	1-1	0-0	2-2	1	0	0	7	-1
TOTALS		82	24-50	8-16	26-27	30	12	17
			48.0	50.0	96.3

UNC Bright Spots

R.J Davis had 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Kerwin Walton had 14 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds.

Garrison Brooks had 12 points, 3 assists, and 1 rebound.

Caleb Love had 11 points and 2 rebounds.

Needs Work

The Tar Heels guards must do a better job of getting the team into their offense. They must cut down on the turnovers and over-dribbling of the basketball. There is also entirely too much standing around and passing around the perimeter without any purpose. They need to make a better effort of getting the ball inside to their bigs.

The bigs struggled to score around the rim in this game, which is surprising. They must be better in that area because that is the strength of this team.

The UNC defense needs to get much better. They must have more energy and effort on that side of the floor. They need to communicate better and make sure they are not allowing straight-line drives and wide-open threes to their opponent.

Final Observations

The Tar Heels fall to 3-3 now in ACC play. It is the little things with this team that makes them so frustrating to watch at times. Their lack of effort and energy on the defensive end for different stretches of the game is always troubling to see. Their offense struggles to score and commit too many turnovers which is a problem. This has a lot to do with the guards and their inability to get them into their offense at times. They must get better in that aspect of their game.

However, it does seem that the guards are getting more comfortable with their shots, which is a bright spot. UNC also had four players in double figures in this game, which is another bright spot. For this team to continue to be better going forward, the leadership of Garrison Brooks and Leaky Black must improve. They must get their teammates to make sure they are always giving their maximum effort on both ends of the floor.  Because there are too many instances when the Tar Heels seem to not be giving their all at times, which is not good.

Coach Williams also needs to do a better job of mixing and matching lineups out there on the court because some lineups that he puts out there cause the team to lose leads and get down by bigger deficits. Anthony Harris returned in this game and showed us what he is capable of and should be a great addition to this team going forward. UNC still has an opportunity to be special but must continue to develop that identity and chemistry to give us those results. Next up is Wake Forest on Wednesday night.