UNC 72, Davidson 68
No. 1 North Carolina escapes with 72-68 win over DavidsonI had a feeling this one would be closer than most people thought. No big surprises in the starting lineup. Tyler, Ty, Wayne, Deon and Marcus. There were some questions as to whether Marcus would start or Danny. Both played decent in the game. A big part of this game was the officiating. They called every touch foul under the sun. Ty went out of the game in the first half with 10:30 after picking up his 3rd foul.
We didn't look good for the first 15 minutes of the game and finally took the lead with 6:47 before the half. Hansbrough had a really good first half and not so great second half. He had a double-double with 6 minutes left in the first half! While our shooting looked shaky at times, we ended up shooting 58% in the first half.
We had a big let down to start the second half: Davidson scored 8 straight points and we couldn't hit the side of a bus. Then Hansbrough got called for a BS technical because a Davidson guy tried to walk through him. He was assessed a personal foul before that so he picked up 2 fouls in one shot!
We scored 2 points in 6 minutes. Danny Green showed some leadership nailing a 3 pointer and then making a 3 point play on the next strip down the floor to give UNC a 52-50 lead. Hansbrough picked up his 4th foul with 6:26 to go in the game and was a non-factor the rest of the way.
Davidson tied things up at 61 all with 3:44 to go. It wasn't looking good for us. Ty had an off game scoring 5pts and 0 assists. He tried to step up down the stretch, but if it wasn't for a clutch step back jump shot by Wayne Ellington in the last couple of minutes, I'm not sure we would have won.
So for the good and the bad. Let's start with the good. The team on the floor looked extremely similar to last year's team that made it to the Elite Eight and won the ACC Regular Season and Conference Tournament. We are only missing Brandan Wright and Reyshawn Terry and while they had significant roles, the other ten returners played a lot too.
Now the bad: this year's team looks a lot like last year. The big thing we lacked last year, besides experience, was consistent outside shooting. I have a sinking feeling we are going to suffer from that again (as we did against Davidson). Now mind you, Wayne Ellington did score a team-high 20 points. He played very well. But it is the same faces on the court that missed our last 20 shots to lose to Georgetown. We just don't that deep threat everyone has confidence in (like a Rashad McCants). That's not to say we won't be really, really good this year. We will. I'm just saying that it won't surprise me if we have those games where we go for long periods without scoring as we did several times last year.
Bottom line: We aren't an AP #1 caliber team YET.
