UNC Basketball Update News and game summaries from a life-long North Carolina Basketball fan(atic)

UNC 90, Kent State 61   Boxscore | Recap Despite being short-handed, UNC was able to pull away from Kent St in the second half to secure a 29 point victory. Not only were we down Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas (again with a sore ankle), Alex Stephenson didn't play. Alex went home to California to attend to an illness in his family. Quentin actually suited up for the game, but wasn't going to play unless there was an emergency. We blew yet another large lead (18 pts) in the first half. In the closing minutes, Kent St got it all the way back down to 9 pts, but Wayne Ellington dribbled the ball up the court and with less than a second to go nailed a three from behind NBA range. It was a great way to finish a rather lackluster performance in the final minutes by UNC. As is our tendency, we played better in the second half and wore down Kent St. We played ok at times, but our defense also looked like swiss cheese at times. Kent St was able to score way too many baskets in the paint. Tyler Hansbrough kept up his All-American caliber play scoring 25 pts including 11-11 from the free throw line. Wayne Ellington shot better this game going 8-11 from the field for 17 points. Ty Lawson also shot well going 7-11 for 17 points. He nailed 3 threes, a couple of which were wide open. Danny Green wasn't quite the spark plug he has been, but he still did well scoring 9 pts and grabbing 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. To make up for the loss of Quentin and Alex, Will Graves and Mike Copeland both saw career highs in minutes. Will didn't keep up his torrid shooting pace--going 1-5, but he did grab 6 rebounds and make 2 assists in only 14 minutes. I wasn't very hot on Mike Copeland's performance. Like Will, he's a local product (from Winston-Salem), and even though he scored 8 points going 3-4, I thought he made several bad decisions, which is evident by his team leading 4 turnovers (in 16 minutes). Let's hope we have both Alex and Quentin back for the Sunday game against Clemson to open conference play. This will be our biggest test of the season so far. College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com Posted by Robbie Allen @ 1/04/2008 11:00:00 AM Comments: You know, this was the first game I really saw how good they were. They really showed that on offense, there really wasn't any flaws. On D, they got lazy but after all, was there ever a chance for Kent State to win? I'm sure they'll work on marking the cutter and keeping the inside game to a minimal but I was pleased at how they dominated the game... and so did the announcers. I thought for a second I was hearing Dukie V at a Duke game the way they went on and on about how good UNC is. I'll agree on most of what they said but if you were a Kent State fan, I'd feel bad how biased they were. # posted by  Anonymous : 1:52 PM   Will Graves seems to have some unexpected firepower and Copeland may too. # posted by  William O. Douglas Loeffler : 4:16 PM   I don't think Will Graves' ('06 NC HS POY) firepower is unexpected. Expectations are actually fairly high on him (from the words of Roy). I'm a big Will Graves fan. Copeland, however, was never expected to play more than in out-of-reach game situations unless he improved vastly. # posted by  Robbie Allen : 4:37 PM   But he hadn't played that much until now, so I was surprised. I am not as good as spotting defensive attributes as some of you, but it seems as though he would have been getting more minutes even before the injuries to the team. By the way, your post reminds me of another former in-state star, JamesOn Curry, who apparently went pro and is no longer in college ball. I am not sure that that was a good idea for him. # posted by  William O. Douglas Loeffler : 4:32 PM   Post a Comment << Home