Well a 73-67 win over NCCU honestly didn’t give me the hope I wanted to get out of this game. It was another tale of two halves, and even though we looked better in the second half we had a sloppy finish. Slow starts seem to be here to stay as we got off to another one against NCCU. NCCU turned the ball over 4 times before the under 16 timeout but we were 1-4 on field goals and 4-8 on free throws. NCCU started 1-4 but went 6-6 and went on a 15-2 run. Can’t believe I am saying this but NCCU had a double digit lead during the first half. Our defensive has once again been shaky and we have allowed too much dribble penetration which has led to easy 3s. We simply aren’t keeping ourselves between our man and the basket. NCCU was 4-8 from behind the arc in the first half. We were 0-7. We had 9 turnovers and 9 field goals. Luckily we were hitting the boards. We had a 20-14 advantage on the boards with 6 offensive rebounds. We have 8 second chance points and 18 points in the paint. We haven’t looked great in transition on the offensive side of the ball, but our transition has been a bright spot. Love turned the ball over, but got back and was able to block the ball. The ball hit off of a NCCU player and we ended up with possession. We had a good offensive sequence where we had back to back 3 point plays. Platek had a nice back door and then Kessler and Sharpe had a nice exchange. Kessler got the ball down low to Sharpe and then cut through the lane. We are 12-18 on free throws in the first half. Brooks picked up 2 fouls in 30 seconds and sat out the final 6 minutes of the half. Davis and Love had nice drives to end the half. Love had a good defensive sequence against Keyser and then had a nice drive on the other end. Davis had a nice drive to end the half. We went on a 16-5 run to end the half with a 2 point lead, 30-28. Thank God for Bacot. He has 15 points, is 4-4 from the field, and 7-10 from the line in the first half. He has also added 7 rebounds. The rest of our starters have 9 combined points. NCCU did not attempt a free throw in the first half and had 7 turnovers.
The second half felt like a half we had control over the entire time even though it took us till around the 10 minute mark to gain a double digit lead. Bacot had 4 of our first 6 points of the half. We got off to a good start and then got sloppy off back to back turnovers from our freshmen backcourt. We had some nice offensive sequences throughout the half. Love converted a 3 point play after being fouled on a jumper. Love then had a nice drive after some help from a post player who sealed his man. Brooks then had a nice pass down low to Sharpe for a dunk. Love and Sharpe connected on the first alley oop of the season. He had another lob to Sharpe later in the half. Is that a sign of chemistry? I hope so. Love did have some nice passes but he still struggled some. We finished with 12 points, 4 assists, and 6 turnovers. At one point he had half of our team’s turnovers. We finished with 18. He can’t have a negative assist to turnover ratio running Roy’s system. He just can’t. The second half was a glimmer of hope that we may be picking it up a little bit, but he hasn’t picked it up as fast as most Tar Heels were hoping for. Platek hit our first 3 at the 10:42 mark and then hit another one on the next offensive possession. We went 2-15 from behind the arc. Platek had both of those makes. That led to a 10-0 scoring run. Platek had 8 of those points after Love got a steal that led to an easy lay up for Platek. NCCU attempted their first free throws after the under 12 timeout. Sharpe had a good drive later in the half. He definitely struggles when double teamed though. Love and Sharpe both made both their free throws with under 5 minutes to play. We started poorly from the line but finished 25-31. 81% sounds a lot more like Carolina. We didn’t finish strong though as we allowed NCCU to hit back to back 3s and it eventually led to a 6 point win. There was again a renewed emphasis in the second half to get the ball down low and we ended up overpowering an overmatched team. We had a 37-25 advantage on the boards. 11 of those were offensive. Bacot had 5 of them. He finished with 19 points on 6-7 shooting and 11 rebounds. Sharpe also entered double figures with 12 points. He also added 6 rebounds. Kessler had 5 points. We had 36 points in the paint and 16 second chance points. We shot 46% for the game. NCCU shot 42% from 3 and 45% from the field. They had 18 points off of our 18 turnovers. Brooks and Davis struggled. Davis only had 6 and Brooks could never get going after early foul trouble. He finished with 5 points.
It was good to see our free throw shooting improve, but our shooting is still lacking. Turnovers are still an obvious problem. The silver lining of this game is that our freshmen got more game experience. The bad thing is that the game wasn’t pretty. I will finish up this article with some wild rebounding statistics since that seems like our best source of offense. Ohio State is another opponent that we should dominate on the boards.
The Tar Heels are averaging 48.6 rebounds, including 17.2 offensive rebounds per game.
• The 49.0 rebounds per game are on pace to be the third highest average in UNC history (49.9 in 1960-61 and 48.8 in 1963-64).
• UNC has a rebound margin of plus 17 per game. The school record is +12.3 in 2016-17.
Freshman Day'Ron Sharpe and sophomore Armando Bacot lead UNC in rebounds per 40 minutes at 15.5 and 15.4, respectively.
• Carolina is second nationally in offensive rebound percentage, grabbing 43.4 percent of its own missed shots.
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