In win against Rutgers, a homecoming for Strickland

NEW YORK — Upon his arrival home for Christmas last week, Dexter Strickland stepped inside his family’s Rahway, N.J., apartment, breathed a deep sigh and had three words.

“It’s been awhile,” his mother Sherrone Helsey recounted her son saying.

Strickland had planned on returning to Chapel Hill on Sunday. But after inclement weather derailed air and ground travel plans throughout the northeast, Strickland’s stay in New Jersey was extended through Tuesday, giving the sophomore shooting guard a 40-minute drive with his father to New York City instead of a flight with the team.

Siblings, cousins and grandparents would follow later in the day to the hallowed Madison Square Garden, the site where Strickland signed his letter of intent to attend North Carolina two years ago as a promising young guard out of St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, N.J.

“All kids that are fans of basketball want to play at the Garden. Being a Jersey boy, he doesn’t want to just play at the Garden – he wants to perform well at the Garden,” Helsey said, adding that she preferred the 40-minute train ride to the hours-long trip she makes to Chapel Hill about eight times each season.

Playing against Rutgers before friends and about 15 family members, Strickland said he was unfazed by the tradition of Madison Square Garden and his hometown onlookers. Strickland fielded the opening tip-off and later scored the game’s first points by weaving his way through the Scarlet Knights’ defense for an early lay-up.

“It was very important … important for us to bring that intensity early,” Strickland said.

The guard finished the game with nine points one week after setting a career-high of 19 against William & Mary and tying his previous career-high of 18 points against Texas on Dec. 18. Strickland originally set his career-high of 18 points against Rutgers last year in an 81-67 victory at the Smith Center.

Strickland’s point performance tied him for third-most in a 78-55 victory that showed little evidence of distraction or rust after flight delays and eight days without a full-team practice.

“Dexter and D.J. (Johnston) never made it back to Chapel Hill,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Only 10 of the team’s 16 players were able to take part in a Sunday shoot-around in Chapel Hill.

“Dexter was a little anxious because he hadn’t seen anybody in practice,” Williams said.

Strickland said the weather relegated him to workouts at a gym near his family’s New Jersey apartment in anticipation of Tuesday’s game.

“It was horrible. I was stuck in my house,” he said. “I luckily didn’t have to shovel anything.”