UNC Basketball Moments After – UNC vs. UCLA 76-74 Win
UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Secures an Important Victory in Madison Square Garden Against UCLA to Help Them Right the Ship
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina basketball team traveled to New York to play at Madison Square Garden in a key matchup against #18 UCLA. The Tar Heels’ first-half struggles continued in this game. Carolina’s offense was abysmal and their energy, effort, and intensity defensively were subpar. UCLA took full advantage of UNC’s laziness on defense and got whatever they wanted offensively early. UCLA shot 53% from the field in the first half and made 6 threes. The Bruins were the more aggressive of the two teams and dictated the pace and flow to set the tone. North Carolina was just out of sorts offensively with more turnovers (11) than field goals made (9) and assists (6). The Tar Heels also had their worst shooting percentage of the season in the first half, shooting only 37% from the field due to their stagnant offense. Even with how poorly the Heels played in the first half, UNC only found themselves down 8 going into halftime.
In the first 10 minutes of the second half, Carolina’s poor play continued on both ends of the floor. Offensively, there was a clear lack of ball movement, player movement, and an increase in bad shot selection and bad passes for the Heels. North Carolina’s defense was no better with their inability to keep the UCLA players in front of them on the perimeter, their lethargic effort to contest three-point shots, and the lack of resistance at the rim. UCLA outscored the Heels 19-11 in the early minutes of the second half extending their lead to as much as 16 over Carolina. However, the Tar Heels would not go away and would fight to stay in the game like they have done in previous games after being down double figures. With just over 11 minutes left in the game, North Carolina picked up their energy, effort, and intensity defensively and started to get consecutive stops. Once the Heels got those stops, they started to find some juice offensively and hit some shots.
Carolina would then go a 20-6 run to cut a 16-point UCLA lead to 2 with just over 6 minutes left in regulation. Seth Trimble, Elliott Cadeau, Ian Jackson, RJ Davis, Drake Powell, and Jalen Washington all hit key baskets to help UNC chip away at UCLA’s lead. Down the stretch of this game, it would be a nail-biter. Even though the Tar Heels got the lead down to two, UCLA wouldn’t let them tie the game up. UCLA drew several fouls in the waning minutes and hit free throws to stay up on the Heels. The Bruins’ lead never went above four in the latter minutes as UNC was right there with them until the very end. North Carolina made everything difficult for UCLA in the most crucial minutes of the game. With 1:32 left in the game, Jalen Washington hit a layup to tie the game at 72. UCLA guard Sebastian Mack would go down the very next play and get fouled followed by two free throws to regain the lead. RJ Davis got fouled next time down the floor but only made one of his two free throws leaving the Heels down 74-73.
North Carolina came out in a full-court press on UCLA’s next possession and trapped UCLA guard Dylan Andrews in the corner. UNC Freshman Drake Powell would then make the biggest play of the game and knock the ball off of Dylan Andrews out of bounds to give the Tar Heels back the ball. On their biggest offensive possession of the game, Carolina runs a play, and RJ Davis drove the ball downhill to draw a foul to go to the free throw line, but this time he made both free throws to give UNC a 75-74 lead. UNC gets a stop on the very next UCLA possession after outstanding defense from Elliott Cadeau to force a tough shot and the rebound was secured by Drake Powell with 0.1 second left in the game. North Carolina held the Bruins without a made field goal in the final 3:42 seconds of the game as the Tar Heels’ stout defense and offensive execution down the stretch helps them secure their biggest win of the season over UCLA.
UNC Game Stats
Final
| 1 | 2 | T | |
| UNC | 32 | 44 | 76 |
| UCLA | 40 | 34 | 74 |
UNC Bright Spots
Ian Jackson had 24 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds.
RJ Davis had 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Seth Trimble had 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
Needs Work
The Tar Heels need to start games with more energy, effort, and intensity on both ends of the floor. Their slow starts allow teams to get confidence early in games and put them at a disadvantage against their opponents.
Coach Hubert Davis must do a better job of running plays for the Bigs, incorporating them more in the offense for more than just setting screens and rolling and crashing the offensive glass. Jalen Washington and Ven Allen Lubin are skilled enough offensively to have specific plays designed just for them. This will make them a more consistent offensive threat that opposing defenses will have to account for and it will make it easier for the guards and wings to get more quality shots at the rim and on the perimeter.
The Tar Heels does a good job of attacking the pain and one of the main sources of offense is at the free throw line. Over the last few games, the Heels have struggled from the free throw line, and it was no different in this game, shooting under 50% from the charity stripe. UNC needs to be more focused on the free-throw line and convert those opportunities since they are getting to the stripe at least 20 times per game.
Defensively, this team needs to be much better in all facets including defending on the perimeter, navigating screens, contesting shots, and defending the paint. They must be better with their communication, help-side defense, and their intensity and effort needs to be at a high level for longer stretches of the game.
Final Observations
North Carolia improves to 7-5 on the season. The Heels get their biggest win of the season and their first win over a ranked opponent this season. They finally closed out a game after making a comeback from double figures. However, their biggest issue still looms over them, which is their slow starts to games. For the seventh time in 12 games, UNC fell behind by double figures in the first and trailed at halftime. That is totally unacceptable. Coach Hubert Davis and his coaching staff have to do everything in their power to change the outcome of the starts to the game, whether that be lineup changes, new offensive and defense schemes implemented, or guys being pulled out the game as soon as they aren’t showing the absolute best effort out there on the floor.
This is a good Carolina team, but they will never be as successful as they want to be if they keep getting behind early. It’s not just on the coaches though. The players must take it upon themselves as well to say we are not going to let this happen again. A leader needs to emerge for the Tar Heels to make sure they are kept in check. RJ Davis and Seth Trimble are the leaders right now, but they aren’t doing nearly enough to galvanize their teammates. The Tar Heels also need to lead in on their strengths as a team. Hubert Davis likes to go small, so the Heels need be applying full-court pressure more often, be the fastest team in the country, and doing whatever it takes to speed the game up causing absolute havoc on both ends of the floor for their opponent. Their ball pressure defensively needs to get the position where teams can’t even dribble up and down the court.
Their offense needs to be so fast paced that by the end of the game the other team is tired. That will be one of the main recipes for success for the Tar Heels along with moving constant ball movement and player movement offensively and getting the Bigs involved offensively consistently throughout the game. Defensively, they must step it up and make sure they are giving maximum effort, energy, and intensity on that side of the floor. The Heels came into this game ranked 334th in scoring defense, which is totally unacceptable. That can’t happen and it’s the worst the defense has been since the 8-20 Carolina season. North Carolina is much better than that and have shown in the second halves of these big games the type of team they can become. They must be consistent going forward and put together two halves of great basketball, giving maximum effort for 40 minutes each game. Once they do that, we will find out how good this team can be. Next up is Campbell on Sunday, December 29 at 8:00 P.M. on the CW.