Three-guard lineup, McDonald shine in Saturday's game

WINSTON-SALEM — Roy Williams did something Saturday he has rarely tried all season. He went small.

Right around the time Wake Forest took its only lead of the second half, Williams moved swingman Will Graves to power forward and put in a three-guard lineup of Leslie McDonald, Dexter Strickland and Larry Drew II.

And guess what? It worked. With three dribblers, plus Graves as a spot-up shooter, the Tar Heels got great ball movement out of their half-court offense and repeatedly found the open man. Five minutes later, North Carolina had leapt to a 57-47 lead.

“I have a rule, I’m going to do what I think’s best at that specific time, and it was good for us today,” Williams said.

That backcourt (Graves, McDonald, Strickland and Drew) combined for 31 points in the second half to lead the Tar Heels to their first win against a team not named N.C. State in nearly two months.

No one thrived more than McDonald, who had his best game of the year and a career-high 16 points to lead the Tar Heels. The freshman was averaging just 3.2 per game off the bench but showed energy on both ends of the court against the Demon Deacons.

During a stretch starting when the score was tied at 41, McDonald drew a charge, hit a 3-pointer to take the lead, fed John Henson for a wide-open dunk off an inbounds play and made a layup after grabbing his own miss.

“I’ve been waiting for a performance like this, because Leslie and I go at it every day in practice,” Graves said. “He’s a scorer, and he has a scorer’s mentality.”

Later, when Wake Forest cut the lead to 71-68 with only 59 seconds to play, it was McDonald and another freshman guard who delivered the dagger. Strickland took the inbounds pass and streaked up the sideline, then tossed it back to a trailing McDonald for a layup.

Seconds later, McDonald was flattened by Wake Forest’s C.J. Harris at the 3-point line. He literally took that one on the chin — he had to get stitches after the game — and Harris was called for a charge. The Demon Deacons didn’t score again.

“I have told (McDonald) in practice that I think he’s working harder, he’s being more aggressive, he’s being more attentive,” Williams said. “I said, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing, and it’s going to pay off for you.’”

Williams went with the three-guard lineup partly out of necessity and partly out of the flow of the game. Foul trouble kept Tyler Zeller on the bench, and the Demon Deacons’ Ish Smith was pushing the ball so much that UNC didn’t need to match Wake’s size inside with big defenders.

“We know that we can do it, this just gives us that example,” McDonald said of the win. “We’re still here, we’re still going to battle, and we’re not giving up.”



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