Henson’s height halts Terrapins

John Henson embodied North Carolina’s identity on Sunday night in UNC’s 87-76 win against Maryland at the Smith Center.

He swatted shots, tipped passes, grabbed rebounds and generally made life difficult for Maryland on the offensive end of the court.

Jordan Williams of Maryland could do little against Henson’s gangly reach, much like fellow interior stars like C.J. Leslie, Terrence Jones and Jerai Grant before him.

“They’re going to block some shots,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said about UNC’s bigs. “Henson, I don’t think there’s a better shot blocker in the country.”

“That’s a pretty good combination when it’s 7-foot (Tyler Zeller) and 6-foot-10. There are some NBA teams who would like to have that size up front.”

If there was only one reason UNC held Maryland to 41.1 percent shooting, it would be the interior play of Henson.

“John does a lot of damage inside and takes away some of the other team’s inside threat,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “You like for the other team to shoot 41 percent, but I’d like to shoot better than 40 percent ourselves.”

While Henson flashed more of his budding offensive game, including a nifty reverse layup, his defense is still the calling card.

Maryland’s Williams scored 19 points, but it took 16 shots for him to get to that total.

“I think that’s the goal, you always want to challenge someone and make them shoot over you,” Henson said. “I think (Williams) air-balled a couple of jump-hooks. That’s something that I helped happen.”

Henson sizes up opposing players during drives in a sort of bemusement, as if he can’t believe they think they have a chance to score.

Against Maryland, he blocked seven shots and altered countless others. He routinely came from the weak side to erase shots from unsuspecting guards.

The Smith Center crowd has become so accustomed to Henson’s ubiquitous shot-blocking ability that when he failed to get to a Terrell Stoglin scoop shot that arced three feet over the hoop, the crowd let out an audible sigh.

Even in that play, it was still clear what kind of impact Henson had. Stoglin had to change his shot from a simple layup to a shot with a much higher degree of difficulty. Though that one went in, many other shots were not as fortunate.

“So much easier,” point guard Kendall Marshall said of defending with Henson on the court. “You can get up and pressure and know that if they get past you the defense is still behind you.”

Even though Henson goes after many shots, he still has the ability to go after the rebounds in that same shot, evidenced by his 15 rebounds, 10 defensive, on the night.

Perhaps as a reward for his recent sharpshooting from the free-throw line, Henson was given the ability to finish the game by Williams — a rare sight for the Tar Heels. Usually Henson is chained to the bench for the last three minutes of the game.

“Defensively, I can alter shots late in the game, especially on layups, and that can save us some games,” Henson said.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.