Villanova 69, UNC 83
Boxscore |
RecapUNC continues to play its best ball of the season as we rolled over Villanova on our way to the championship game against MSU on Monday. After just a couple minutes into the game, UNC established a lead it never lost. The game got as close at 5 points at the 17 minute mark in the second half, but we had an answer every time Nova made a little spurt.
We were hitting on all cylinders with the exception of free throw shooting. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green were knocking down their shots. When they are hitting, no one can beat us. We just need one more game. Wayne continues to be in a zone. It's a thing of beauty.
I thought the officiating was pretty bad. A bunch of little touch fouls in the first half followed by inconsistency throughout the second half. Just let the kids play! After watching Hansbrough get mauled this season I'm all for reducing hard contact, but touch fouls are a drain on a game.
Over the last few games, we've shown a great amount of poise by not letting leads slip through our fingers. Earlier in the season we'd let a 10 or 15 point lead evaporate. Recently we've done a good job of stopping our opponents' runs before they climb all the way back.
Yes,
we beat MSU by 35 points back in December, but they were coming off a long road trip and didn't have their big man, Goran Suton. MSU is a different team now. They've looked very impressive in the tournament. We'll definitely need to bring our A-game on Monday!
I'm a little concerned about our legs. MSU is a deep team and while we go 9 deep (only 7 played double digit minutes on Saturday), our starters have played a lot of minutes lately. In the post-game press conference, Ty Lawson looked completely wiped out. Our free throws were off as well, which is sometimes an indication of players being tired. Let's hope they get a lot of rest on Sunday.
