The Tar Heels returned to the court on Saturday afternoon as they welcomed legendary coach Fran Dunphy and the La Salle Explorers to the Smith Center.
It was a slow start out of the gate, as the Tar Heels hit just one of their first seven shots from the field and got in an early 8-2 hole. They would counter that, though, with a 16-0 run that put them in a spot they have been in many times early this season, up double-digits in the first half. The Tar Heels went into the half up 42-25 after shooting 50% from the field and nearly doubling the Explorers up on the boards and in the paint.
The second half was more of the same, as the Tar Heels continued a dominant defensive performance and knocked down eight three-pointers to leave the Explorers in the rearview and give them a comfortable 93-67 win. While the American game may have looked on paper like the best performance of the season, this was the most complete performance because of just how effective the team was defensively after the issues in the first four minutes of the game.
This was a much-needed beatdown that will hopefully restore some confidence in a team that had lacked it since that loss to Auburn in the Maui Invitational Semifinals. The team’s 53.7% field goal percentage in this game was the best since the game against American and the eleven made threes were welcome after the struggles nocking down shots from the outside in the last two games. While the team had eleven turnovers, it felt like they did a much better job taking care of the basketball today than in recent games and passed the ball better as a team across the board. The team continued the success that they’ve had in the paints in the past few games in the paint and did a much better job of finishing at the rim, finishing 17-22 on layups. Let’s hope that this is a game that gives this team the confidence it was lacking as it heads into a crucial week of games against two ranked opponents.
Cade Tyson Shines: Saturday was a game where it felt like Tyson would get more playing and he took advantage of the extra minutes in a big way. Tyson led the Tar Heels in scoring with 23 and hit a season-high five three-pointers. It has been a rough start to his time in Chapel Hill, but hopefully, this is the game that we look back on as the one that got his season jumpstart and gives the team a consistent three-point threat that they have been lacking.
Defense Takes Another Step: The Tar Heels showed signs of life defensively in the game against Georgia Tech last Saturday and they built on that on Saturday. The team was incredibly active from the word go, as they held La Salle to 25 points in the first half, the fewest by an opponent in the first half all season long. The team did a great job of staying in front of La Salle perimeter players which made it much tougher to get to the paint (20 paint points) and created fewer open shots from the outside. The team was also very active in the passing lanes, creating eight steals and twelve turnovers overall. This was the perfect way to follow what the team did against Georgia Tech and shows that if they play hard on that end of the floor, they have the capability to be the type of defensive team they were a year ago.
Ball Security Was Much Better: The Tar Heels’ biggest issue since the Dayton game in Maui has been the turnovers and that peaked in the team’s game against Georgia Tech where they turned it over a season-high 18 times. The team as a whole did a much better job of holding on to it in this one, though, despite still turning over eleven times. Only seven of the turnovers were live ball turnovers and the Explorers converted those into just five points. This is the type of ball security that they will need across the board next week, especially Elliott Cadeau who did a much better job of passing the basketball on Saturday (7 ast, 1 TO).
Strong Shooting Performance Carries This Team Offensively: The Tar Heels have been incredibly up and down from a shooting perspective all year long, but this was a solid shooting day across the board from the team. Tyson was the guy who shined the most of course, shooting 9-14 from the field, but a perfect day from Ven-Allen Lubin in the post and good shooting days on the perimeter from Seth Trimble and Jae’lyn Withers also have to be recognized. Hopefully, this performance gets this team in a rhythm for this week.
Tar Heels Preparing for Important Week: This was the perfect type of performance for this team to head to Charlotte off of as they get ready to prepare for the undefeated Florida Gators in the Jumpman Invitational on Tuesday night. Following that game, the Tar Heels will head to Madison Square Garden to face UCLA, who sits at 9-1 so far this season. This is a crucial week for this Tar Heel team that is in need of some big out-of-conference wins before they head into conference play where there won’t be many Quad 1 opportunities.