UNC 82, Georgia Tech 75
On the back of the best single game performance I've seen all year (and I've seen a couple of Redick's 40 point games), Tyler Hansbrough's 40 points and 10 rebounds led the Tar Heels to a home win against Georgia Tech after being down as much as 20 in the first half. It is hard to describe Hansbrough's performance. Physically he isn't the strongest. He can't jump the highest or run the fastest, but somehow he gets the job done. He consistently got good position down low and either scored, got fouled, or both. By scoring 40 points (23 in the first half), Tyler set the UNC freshman single game record, the ACC freshman single game record, and the Smith Center single game record. He is a lock for an eighth ACC Rookie of the Week award and eventually ACC Rookie of the Year award. He has to be in the top one or two for National Rookie of the Year and is in serious contention for 1st team All-ACC. The downside to all of this is of course there will be much talk about his draft status after the season. Marvin Williams didn't have nearly as good of a year as Hansbrough and he went in the NBA lottery last year.
Back to the game…in the first half the big story was Georgia Tech's shooting. They were shooting the lights out. They were an unbelievable 9-10 from beyond the arc. This coupled with the fact that they were outrebounding us early meant we were behind for most of the half and at one point by as much as 20! We made a little run toward the end of the half and cut the lead to only 8.
I knew Georgia Tech's shooting streak couldn't last for the whole game. This is what they did by halftime:
FG: 19-31 (61%)
3pt: 9-10 (90%) - 38% season avg
FT: 8-11 (73%) - 66% season avg
As you can see, they were well above their season average, but it would take UNC firing out of the gates in the second half to overtake Tech and that is exactly what happened. In the post game interviews,
David Noel compared Coach Williams to the Tasmanian Devil during halftime because he was so upset with the team's performance.
As has been typical for us, we started the second half strong. We inched back into the game and took the lead at the 10 minute mark. Reyshawn Terry had a good game with 13 points. David Noel had a couple of highlight reel dunks. But still UNC struggled when Hansbrough wasn't in the game.
Since the start of the ACC season, Tyler has been doubled and sometimes tripled teamed every time he gets the ball. Georgia Tech took the gutsy move of only putting one man on Hansbrough -- essentially guarding everyone else well and forcing Hansbrough to beat Tech. And that's exactly what happened. Tyler's eyes must have been as big as bowling balls when he noticed he wasn't getting double teamed. That said, he was getting banged up down low. He got hacked numerous times and showed more emotion in this game than any I've seen all year. He can take a lickin and keep on stickin!
We had a 5 point lead with 5 minutes to go and didn't relinquish it. This was a big win and the kind that builds a team's confidence even though it was not a great game statistically for most of the team. Wes Miller had a couple of big threes even though he had an off night shooting (2-8 from behind the arc). Bobby Frasor was 0-4 from the floor but had 8 assists. Perhaps the biggest non-Tyler stat of the game is turnovers. For a team that averages over 17 a game, we only had 13 and protected the ball pretty well.
Other key stats:
- 3 pt FGs: 3-15/20% (UNC), 9-17/53% (Ga Tech)
+ Rebounds: 35 (UNC), 28 (Ga Tech)
+ Free throws shot: 35 (UNC), 19 (Ga Tech)
+ Fouls: 16 (UNC), 31 (Ga Tech)
+ Turnovers: 13 (UNC), 20 (Ga Tech)
