UNC Basketball Moments After – UNC vs Navy 73-61 Win
UNC Tar Heels Basketball Sleep Walks Down the Stretch to Win Against the Navy Midshipmen
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina basketball team aced off against Navy on Tuesday night. The Tar Heels jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead after a pair of Caleb Wilson dunks and a Luka Bogavac three-pointer. The Heels ball movement was very good early on and they were getting quality shots on each possession, including making 5 of their first seven threes. About midway through the first half, the energy shifted in the game. There was a stretch where UNC’s energy and effort level was low on both ends of the floor. Carolina started to be very passive offensively, especially when Navy switched to a zone defense.
The Heels allowed Navy to dictate the shots they took and weren’t nearly as aggressive attacking the zone as they should’ve been. UNC was being weak around the basket and took several ill-advised shots. North Carolina just weren’t as focused and locked in defensively either allowing Navy to have success in the paint, outscoring the Heels 16-12 in the paint when they had a clear size advantage. This allowed Navy to hang around and keep the game close. After a much-needed timeout, the Tar Heels would regroup and go on a run to push the lead back to double figures because they started to attack the middle of zone, which created advantages for their offense and led to either wide open threes, layups, or dunks. Carolina still managed to only be up 7 at halftime due to a late first half debacle where they missed seven of their last eight shots.
To start the second half, North Carolina was still going through the motions, playing lackadaisical basketball and needed someone to wake them up after Navy cut their lead to 4. It would be Caleb Wilson that put his imprint on the game with his energy, effort, and intensity on both ends of the floor. His energy changed the game and gave the Heels the boost they needed. Caleb Wilson had 17 second half-points and was just everywhere. He was blocking shots, deflecting passes, pushing the pace, hitting the defensive and offensive glass, scoring the ball in a variety of ways, and even had a stretch where he made three dunks in a row.
The rest of the Carolina fed off Caleb Wilson’s energy and picked up their urgency and intensity on both ends of the floor. The Tar Heels started to fly around defensively and play inside out to generate quality shots. UNC held Navy scoreless for nearly six minutes and extended their lead to as much as 24 in the the second half. Four Tar Heels finished in double figures including Caleb Wilson, Luka Bogavac, Henri Veesaaar, and Jarin Stevenson. Carolina were in complete control with just over 4 minutes left in the game. However, UNC didn’t finish the game strong and completely let their foot off the gas, allowing Navy to go on a 15-0 run to cut their 24 lead to nine after some stagnant offense and lack of concentration defensively giving up too many easy shots. The Tar Heels would go on to win this game by 13 but in ugly fashion to go 4-0 on the season.
| 1 | 2 | T | |
| Navy 2-3 | 31 | 30 | 61 |
| 18 North Carolina 5-0 | 38 | 35 | 73 |
| Starters | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| C. Wilson | 23 | 12 | 1 | 9/13 | 0/1 | 5/7 | 4 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| L. Bogavac | 16 | 6 | 2 | 4/10 | 3/6 | 5/7 | 1 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Stevenson | 11 | 8 | 1 | 4/6 | 1/1 | 2/2 | 3 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| H. Veesaar | 10 | 7 | 2 | 4/9 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| K. Evans | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1/9 | 1/8 | 0/0 | 2 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Bench | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| D. Dixon | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2/6 | 2/3 | 2/2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Brown | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 2/2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| J. Young | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Z. High | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| I. Denis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Powell | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 2 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| I. Matlekovic | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| E. Davis | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Holbrook | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| E. Smith | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 73 | 43 | 15 | 24/56 | 8/23 | 17/22 | 16 | – | 4 | 7 | 13 |
| Starters | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| A. Benigni | 19 | 5 | 5 | 5/20 | 3/4 | 6/6 | 1 | 39 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| J. Kim | 14 | 6 | 1 | 5/17 | 2/8 | 2/2 | 2 | 28 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| M. Woods | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3/9 | 1/3 | 2/2 | 4 | 30 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| A. Kehoe | 5 | 8 | 1 | 2/7 | 0/0 | 1/2 | 3 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Draper | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2/10 | 0/4 | 1/2 | 3 | 31 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Bench | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| C. Jackson | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3/3 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Pennick | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1/2 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Burnett | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/2 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Cole | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Cormany | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| S. Krist | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| R. Whitaker | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Gabbidon | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| N. Howard | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. King | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| T. Raji | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| O. Gray | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| D. de Jongh | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| M. Gaffney | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Ashley Jr. | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Kearns | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| L. Morgan | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Pollock | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. McConnell | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| S. McLeod | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 61 | 31 | 10 | 21/69 | 6/21 | 13/16 | 19 | – | 8 | 5 | 6 |
UNC Bright Spots
Caleb Wilson had 23 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and 1 assist.
Luka Bogavac had 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Jarin Stevenson had 11 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block
Henri Veesaar 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.
Needs Work
The Tar Heels must play with more consistent energy, effort, and intensity on both ends of the floor no matter who they play. They cannot go through the motions just because they’re playing against a less talented team. It isn’t a good habit for a championship caliber team.
They need to make sure they are not getting stagnant offensively in the half-court. There needs to be constant ball movement and player movement to create advantages for someone to take a quality shot. They also must do a better job of protecting the basketball not being sloppy with ball, trying to make the spectacular or difficult pass or having careless turnovers. Tar Heels ask need to make sure they are taking their time with their shots around the basket because they missed entirely too many layups in this game.
The Tar Heels need their bench to step up and make significant contributions. Only Derek Dixon and James brown scored off the bench tonight and that’s totally unacceptable with the talent they have on the bench
Final Observations
The Tar Heel improve to 4-0 and gets their 2,400th victory in UNC basketball program history, making it the third school in NCAA history to reach that mark. The Heels are still adjusting without Seth Trimble on the floor and will need to find a consistent second option after Caleb Wilson. The player also needs to understand that everyone needs to be aggressive offensively, move the ball, move without the ball, use dribble penetration and it will create more advantages on offense and generate more quality shots for everyone.
The one thing the Heels need to make sure they play with a certain level of effort, intensity, urgency, and energy in each game no matter who the opponent. This team has championship aspirations and has the talent to be and play that caliber of basketball, but you cannot cheat the process. This team needs to play with a championship mindset every game and play at a high level leaving it all to floor every night. No matter if they shoot the ball well, there shouldn’t be another game where we question this team’s effort like we did in tonight’s game. They’re a young team with several new players and will need to learn from this. I expect them too going forward. Coach Davis and his staff will need to make sure of it though. Next up is St. Bonaventure on Tuesday, November 22 at 6:00 P.M. on FS1.
This is the same stuff that they did last year. We should have smashed that team. But I guess a win is a win.
This is what a young team goes through, it’s called maturation. They will face adversity sometime this year. It’s unavoidable but it’s not all that bad. Keep growing as a team and not just as a individual piece will be the task for the coaching staff this year.