UNC 76, Clemson 61
For the first game in a long time, we finally had a strong start. We reeled off a 10-0 lead before Clemson had to call a timeout to settle their team down. After that we cooled off a bit but were still up 18-8 with 10 minutes to go in the first half. We continue to have problems with turnovers (21 on the game), and made several bad entry passes from the top of the key to down low. I don't know why our guys want to force it from there. The pass from the top is one of the hardest to make on the court. We played solid defense throughout the game. One stat to note from the first half is Wes Miller taking not one but two charges. He is one of the best defensive players on the team. At the half we were up 11 points, 37-26.
Of course we got off to a good start in the second half as usual. We took a 17 point lead after Reyshawn Terry got an offensive rebound, scored, was fouled, missed the free throw, got the offensive rebound again and scored. Terry has been a man possessed for the last two games. His defense has been near perfect. He and David Noel both have been playing well. Noel came close to a triple double by scoring 12 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and tallying 9 assists. He disappeared for a 5 or 6 game stretch (which both he and Coach Williams admit), but now he is back. Thank goodness!
Bobby Frasor had a good game scoring with 16 points, but had 0 assists and 4 turnovers. He played well despite the misleading stat sheet. Hansbrough was banged around down low and was called for a couple of suspicious fouls. He had to sit at the 13 minute mark in the second half with 3 fouls. After that Clemson went on a run to bring it back to just a 9 point lead with 12 minutes to go.
Hansbrough came back in and had an awesome tip in for a basket. He was trying to catch an entry pass from the top of the key and when he went up to catch it, it tipped off his hand and into the basket. Later, Bobby Frasor's alley oop to David Noel ended up going in the basket. Luck was on our side for sure!
I was very proud of the team, especially in the second half. We played hard defense and Terry and Noel showed a lot of leadership. In fact, Reyshawn got the first double-double of his career leading the team in scoring with 19 and rebounds with 11.
We won by 15 at home and extended the home winning streak over Clemson to 52 games. This ties the longest "utility" winning streak in the country with Brown/Princeton. Clemson has NEVER won in Chapel Hill. That's an amazing fact.
At the end of the game, the Carolina crowd started chanting: “You can’t win here”, but Roy shut them down. There were several shots of him on the sidelines telling the student section to cut it out. And they listened :-) Coach Purnell from Clemson and Roy are close friends (both coached in the last Olympics under Larry Brown).
Next up is Duke at home on Tuesday. I can't wait!
Other key stats:
- Turnovers: 21 (UNC), 19 (Clemson)
+ Rebounds: 39 (UNC), 29 (Clemson)
- UNC 3pt field goals: 3-12 (25%)
+ UNC free throws: 23-29 (79%)
+ UNC field goals: 25-50 (50%)
