UNC beats Boston College for first ACC win

In the first three losses of the ACC season, North Carolina often looked like an unfinished puzzle.

Whether the Tar Heels (11-6, 1-3 ACC) lacked consistent scoring from their stars, support from their role players, hustle or emotion, there was always something missing.

In Saturday’s 82-71 win against Boston College, they finally put the pieces together.

UNC took to the court sporting a new starting lineup, with sophomore Marcus Paige returning to the point guard position. Paige shot himself out of his recent slump, scoring 14 first half points and finishing with 21 in the game. James Michael McAdoo also provided early offense, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the first half.

“I think it starts obviously with myself and James Michael being aggressive and then everything else opens up,” Paige said.

In the second half Paige and McAdoo didn’t score with quite as much frequency, but coach Roy Williams found the pieces to take their place.

Freshman Kennedy Meeks helped to pick up where they left off. After playing only two minutes in the first half, Meeks played 13 in the second, and scored all 10 of his points after halftime.

Sophomore J.P. Tokoto and senior Leslie McDonald joined Meeks in carrying the second half scoring load. Tokoto scored 10 points of his own after the break and McDonald contributed seven, including a 3-pointer with 4:32 left in the game that stretched UNC’s lead to 10.

“J.P.’s getting better and better,” Williams said. “I think Marcus and J.P. and James Michael have given us a little bit of consistency and we need them to keep doing it.”

McAdoo said that today’s win was the team responding to the poor ACC start.

“(It was) a change in mindset,” McAdoo said. “0-3, I’m not gonna say our backs were against the wall or that we were panicking, but something had to change.”

But even in a game where UNC put most of it together, there were still moments that made spectators shake their heads.

Paige, UNC’s most reliable free-throw shooter, missed two in a row, earning him a glare from his head coach.

“I can’t remember the last time I missed two in a row,” Paige said, “Coach gave me the look like, ‘Hey, come on, someone’s gotta make free throws.’”

Tokoto had a similar head-scratching moment late in the second half. Meeks threw a long inbound pass that led Tokoto to a wide-open basket. The play had all the looks of another ferocious dunk that he often makes look commonplace, yet the ball ricocheted off the back of the rim all the way back to halfcourt.

“I probably should’ve just layed it up,” Tokoto said, laughing seemingly with embarrassment and humility, “But in my mind I don’t think the crowd would’ve really liked the layup, so I tried to put it down.”

But even though everything didn’t fall exactly into place, the mistakes weren’t backbreaking for the Tar Heels, and they made enough of the right plays to end their three-game losing streak.

“The right guys took the right shots, we didn’t have guys taking out-of-character shots,” Paige said.

“When we have guys that understand their role on the team and they’re taking the right shots, that usually helps.”

And for a team looking to avoid an 0-4 start in the ACC, it helped a lot.