Marcus Paige struggles to score in UNC's 79-56 rout of UNC-G

GREENSBORO — In the North Carolina men's basketball team's comfortable 79-56 victory over UNC-Greensboro Tuesday, Marcus Paige found himself 0-for-6 well into the second half. 

With 10 minutes left to play in the game, Paige hadn't made a single shot and was 0-for-5 from the 3-point line. He had just two points thanks to a couple of buckets from the free throw line.

Seconds later — 14 to be exact — Paige finally hit his first shot: a 3-pointer from the wing. It was the only field goal he converted the entire game, which he finished with just five points as the team's seventh-leading scorer.

With Kennedy Meeks, Joel James and the Tar Heels thriving inside the paint though, Paige's uncharacteristically poor shooting didn't prove too costly. The game was taken by a wide margin.

Still, questions about his shot lingered after the game.

"He did some good things," said coach Roy Williams after the game, referring to Paige's team-high seven rebounds. "But boy, he missed some wide open shots, too."

But Williams talked about how he tried not to get too upset or excited about any individual performance.

"It's a day-to-day thing," he said. "You guys tried to get me excited Saturday because of the way he made four of them in the second half (against Kentucky). 

"So I didn't get that excited then and I'm not going to get that disappointed now."

Paige's teammates also didn't seem too worried about his shot after the game. When asked about what he would say to Paige in the wake of Tuesday night's performance, sophomore forward Isaiah Hicks kept it simple:

"Keep shooting. Eventually it's going to go in," he said. "You know, it didn't seem like anything was wrong. He wasn't rushing it, he was open. So it's just a matter of keep shooting it."

Last season, in 34 games, Paige shot 44 percent from the floor and 38.9 percent from behind the 3-point line while carrying the team's offense. So far this year in 10 games, Paige is shooting 34.8 percent (39-for-112) from the field and 35.4 percent (23-65) from 3. But through Paige's struggles, players like Meeks and junior forward Brice Johnson have stepped up to help fill the void.

Meeks is scoring 13.8 points per game this season after just 7.6 in 2013-14, while Johnson has upped his scoring from 10.3 points per game in 2013-14 to 11.3 points per game this year. Meeks had a game-high 18 points Tuesday, while Johnson contributed eight of his own. 

Still, against competition stiffer than UNC-G, the Tar Heels might need the 2013-14 version of Paige to resurface. 

And the 2014-15 Paige is confident that he will show up. 

In the locker room after the game, Paige was about to head to the showers when he overheard Johnson answering questions about his own shooting.

"Just today…" Johnson was saying before Paige cut in.

"Is he talking about me?" Paige asked jokingly after fielding the same questions just moments before. "Because I'm gonna make shots."

"That's what I'm saying," Johnson said, smiling. "He's gonna make shots."

sports@dailytarheel.com