Bullock scored 21 points in a standout ?rst half

In the first 20 minutes of North Carolina’s 62-52 win against Maryland on Saturday, Reggie Bullock lit up the scoreboard with 21 points — one more than Maryland’s first half total.

The junior guard was on track to easily surpass his previous career high of 23 points, and he had the chance to break the elusive 40-point mark.

“Reggie probably had his best game in a Carolina jersey,” sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo said. “(He played) bananas. The crowd is just like, ‘Go for 40.’ That’s what I kept telling him: ‘Drop 40 on them, Reg.’”

But that’s not quite what happened.

Though he did eventually set a new career high of 24 points, Bullock’s hot hand cooled, and he added only three more points — a 3-pointer with about six minutes left in the game.

“I think they were more aware of where he was in the second half, and then he missed some open ones,” coach Roy Williams said. “He missed a layup. It wasn’t smooth for him in the second half.”

Bullock’s performance was indicative of UNC’s (12-5, 2-2) play in two very different halves.

Bullock scored the first eight points of the game in the opening 86 seconds of the game before Maryland (14-4, 2-3) could put any points on the board.

“My teammates were just getting me open,” Bullock said. “They were setting great screens for me, and I was just feeling it — being able to go through my regular routine of shooting the ball, and I was just getting open and able to knock it down.”

McAdoo also added 11 points and five rebounds before the break.

North Carolina shot 48.4 percent for the half while holding the Terrapins to 33.3 percent from the floor.

But after going into halftime with a 22-point lead, the Tar Heels couldn’t maintain the first-half tempo.

North Carolina briefly stretched the lead to 23 after a bucket from freshman point guard Marcus Paige, but then saw its lead dwindle to 10 points during the last 18 minutes of the game.

“We can’t get complacent if we have a lead,” Paige said. “You’ve got to understand that if they would have made a little more of a run, we would have had a dog fight in the last couple of minutes.”

Maryland outscored UNC 32-20 in the second half by exploiting a sluggish North Carolina defense and limiting Bullock’s scoring opportunities.

“I felt like I got a lot of easy attempts right there around the basket, and I didn’t make them. I was struggling a little bit,” Bullock said. “But it’s just up to me to be able to knock those shots down. We came out flat a little bit. We weren’t showing as much sense of urgency as we were in the first half on the defensive end of the floor.”

Though Bullock’s second-half performance fell short of expectations, his first half contributions helped give the team a strong start.

“In the first half, Reggie and James Michael did carry us, there’s no question about that,” Williams said. “They should. They’re the most experienced players, guys that we ask to do more.

“It was pretty in the first half, guys. I don’t mind telling you that. We played North Carolina basketball.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.