Once again, North Carolina were on the struggle bus. In their first game at the Phil Knight love-me, love-me tournament, the Tar Heels pulled out a hard fought 89-81 win over Portland.
Pete Nance led the Carolina with 28 points and 7 rebounds. Caleb Love showed how good he can be when he makes good decisions as he scored 23 points on 10-15 shooting from the floor.
In the first half, Carolina wasn’t motivated defensively. The regularly lost shooters and made Portland’s Moses Wood look like Al Wood. On offense, the Heels were sloppy with the ball, turning it over 6 times in the first 20 minutes. Love carried the Heels with 16 points and a two point halftime lead.
At the beginning of the second half, the two teams took turns taking the lead until Portland took a 5 point lead by the under-16.
As good as Love was in the first half, Nance was in the second. Nance scored 20 points in the second half.
Nance’s three pointer tied it at 53. It was part of a run where Nance scored 14 out of Carolina’s next 16 points including 11 in a row.
Leaky Black’s three with 4:19 left, gave Carolina the lead for good at 76-75
Takeaways
Bench – Once again, Hubert Davis had to play his starters a ton of minutes. The bench must earn Davis’ trust. It’s clear that hasn’t happened yet and lets be honest. It doesn’t look close.
Free Throws – After only shooting 4 free throws in the first half, the Heels shot 22 in the second half. Nance led the charge with 9 free throw attempts in the second half. The only downside was Carolina only made 62%.
Rebounds – Much had been made about how UNC was getting dominated on the boards. Today wasn’t one of those days. Carolina won the rebounding battle 39-23 including 12 on the offensive boards for 12 second chance points.
Up Next: Iowa State
