Marcus Paige's sharp shooting leads UNC to win over Indiana, Elite Eight

PHILADELPHIA — This was vintage Marcus Paige, in the present.

As the top-seeded North Carolina men’s basketball team ran away with their Sweet 16 matchup against fifth-seeded Indiana, winning 101-86 to advance to the Elite Eight, Paige showed once again he is a real threat from beyond the arc.

“Marcus came out and he started, I mean, the way he was shooting the ball it felt like it was going in every single time he touched it,” said sophomore wing Justin Jackson.

The 6-foot-2 guard from Marion, Iowa, started the scoring in this game, hitting a 3-pointer 33 seconds in. He then proceeded to make four more without missing. Indiana Coach Tom Crean perhaps put it best when he said, "Marcus was making video game shots to start the game. I mean seriously."

Once he got a few under his belt, he figured it might be one of those nights. 

“I mean after I’d hit two in a row — I haven’t hit two in a row in a long time,” said Paige after the game, laughing. “So to knock down two in a row I felt like, ‘Uh oh, I might mess around and make a couple more.’

“And that’s what I did.”

This was sophomore Marcus Paige, two years later.

After falling into the scoring shadows of his senior season, Paige led UNC with 21 points Friday night, shooting 7-for-12 from the floor and making 6-of-9 3-point shots — tying a NCAA Tournament game record for a Tar Heel.

Paige led UNC in scoring during his second year in Chapel Hill, but that hasn’t often been the case this season with Brice Johnson developing into an All-American player. Friday, though, Paige passed noted scorer Michael Jordan to become the 12th-best scorer in North Carolina basketball history.

“I’ve felt really good shooting the ball (this season),” Paige said. “They just haven’t gone in, which is a little bit crazy but that’s just how it is. That’s the reality. So they felt really good again today and I was able to knock down a couple.

“And you know, sometimes they go in.”

This was second-half Marcus Paige, one half early.

After developing a knack for second-half heroics early on in his career, Paige exploded Friday in the first half, scoring 14 points in just 13 minutes of playing time after making all four of his 3-point attempts.

During the first period, UNC led Indiana 40-23 (+17) with Paige on the court and trailed 12-18 (-6) when he sat on the bench with foul trouble.

“I just wanted to stay aggressive,” Paige said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment, in terms of a chance to get to the Final Four for a long time. That’s more of what my focus has been and I think that’s why I played better today is because I had all day to sit around and think about how close we were to getting to our goals.

“So I really wanted to just come out and give our team a lift.”

That’s what Paige did, with Johnson and sophomore Joel Berry having slow starts in the first half that went virtually unnoticed. After all, the Tar Heels were up 52-41, and Paige was the No. 2 trending topic on Twitter.

“I mean, as you can see tonight he was capable of shooting the ball like that,” Berry said after the game, grinning. “I know what he’s capable of doing, so it’s really not a surprise to me.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point, considering everything he’s done so far.

After all, this is just 2016 Marcus Paige.

@CarlosACollazo

sports@dailytarheel.com