UNC again beaten on the perimeter

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With the clock winding down and North Carolina desperately needing a stop, Virginia Tech put the ball in the hands of its best guard and the ACC’s leading scorer, Malcolm Delaney.

And once again, the Tar Heels failed to stop an opposing guard. Delaney’s two free throws in the final minute iced the VT win.

Since the start of this calendar year (and the start of UNC’s streak of six losses in eight games), opposing starting backcourts have outscored UNC’s starting backcourt by an average of 21.4 points.

Thursday night was more of the same. Virginia Tech’s one-two punch of Delaney and Dorenzo Hudson scored 21 and 17 points, respectively.

On the other end, Larry Drew II and Dexter Strickland combined for just 10. And even with Will Graves (4) and Marcus Ginyard (6) included, the Hokies combo still ruled the scoreboard.

“Malcolm was a load in the second half,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “He made those big threes from deep, and those hurt us.”

The Tar Heels’ struggles to defend guards have been well documented. Delaney and Hudson became the sixth and seventh perimeter starters to exploit UNC this season.

Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert (30), Delaney again (26), Clemson’s Demontez Stitt (20), Wake Forest’s Ishmael Smith (20) and N.C. State’s Javi Gonzalez (19) have done the same.

“It gets old,” Drew said of UNC’s struggles on perimeter defense. “But it’s our task to stop that from happening.”

The Hokie guards took turns getting hot Thursday. Hudson scored 10 of VT’s first 14 points to spark an early lead.

Then, Delaney got hot in the second half, dropping nine of his team’s 13 at one point despite some foul trouble. He weaved around what seemed like a thousand screens per possession to find openings.

“He’s crafty, he knows how to get fouled, he knows how to get to the basket, and he can shoot at the same time,” Graves said. “So he just played like himself.”

While Drew’s presence wasn’t felt so much on the scoreboard, he did get into an offensive rhythm in the first half with dribble penetration. On four consecutive UNC field goals, Drew sliced into the lane and found an open teammate for a bucket.

With Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez up next and Duke’s Jon Scheyer on deck, the Tar Heels will have their hands full trying to stop this trend.

And as Graves said, it’s not just a collective thing. The guards need to make it personal.

“It’s not just as a backcourt, just as a defender,” he said. “We want to stop them and put our effort into it. It’s just a matter of getting the job done.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.