BROOKLYN, N.Y. — For a majority of the first half, the No. 11 North Carolina men’s basketball team was in a funk. Shots weren’t falling, and No. 22 UCLA took advantage.
But behind a career-high 27 points by senior Brice Johnson, the Tar Heels outscored the Bruins 51-38 in the second half to earn an 89-76 victory in Saturday’s CBS Sports Classic at the Barclays Center.
Senior guard Marcus Paige made a 3-pointer on UNC’s first possession of the game, but the Tar Heels (9-2) missed 11 of their next 12 shots, as UCLA (8-4) marched out to an 11-point lead midway through the first half.
Meanwhile, Johnson was forced to watch his team struggle from the bench. The senior forward subbed out less than four minutes into the game, and he didn’t return until the 8:07 mark after Coach Roy Williams benched him for using profanity.
When Johnson re-entered the game, UNC trailed 29-18. But the senior scored 13 points in the final seven minutes of the first half to help the Tar Heels tie the game at 38 entering halftime.
North Carolina’s momentum carried into the second half, as the team used a 13-0 run to take a 73-57 edge with 6:24 left to play.
UNC extended its lead to as many as 17 points in the second half in large part to a streak of 11 consecutive made shots from the field, including five by Johnson, as the Tar Heels overcame their sluggish start to seize the win.
Quotable
"We've had some marquee games this year — Maryland at home, Texas at Texas. We didn't play very well last weekend, and the difference between winning and losing is so small. ... We needed to bounce back and play well today. It was good to have practice time this week, because last week we had almost no practice time and five guys sick. So this was a good week for us to try to get some practice time in. I did tell them it's time we start playing well outside our building, not just in the Smith Center when the crowd is really helping us." — Williams on the importance of Saturday's win.
