UNC men's basketball trails Clemson, 43-38, at the half

The North Carolina men's basketball team trails Clemson, 43-38, at halftime in Littlejohn Stadium. Here's what you missed from the first 20 minutes of action. 

Model of inefficiency

The Tar Heels shot just 24-of-72 (33.3 percent) in its ACC opener against Georgia Tech on Saturday, and the shooting struggles continued in the first half against the Tigers. 

North Carolina knocked down just 42 percent of its field goals in game's first 20 minutes, including a 3-of-10 showing from 3-point range. 

UNC's top-two scorers, Justin Jackson and Joel Berry, shot a combined 7-for-14 in the first half, but were ineffective from downtown, hitting just 3-of-8 3-pointers.

Crashing the boards

While North Carolina didn't shoot the ball particularly well in the first half, it did own the glass. The Tar Heels outrebounded the Tigers, 23-13, and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. 

Those offensive boards led to a 14-2 advantage in second-chance points for UNC, something that kept the team in the game in the first 20 minutes. 

Tigers on fire

Clemson shot considerably better than North Carolina, hitting 53 percent of its shots from the field.

The Tigers were led by Jaron Blossomgame, who scored a game-high 14 points in the game's opening half on 5-of-7 shooting. The redshirt senior came into the game shooting just 6-of-38 from 3-point range, but managed to knock down one of his three 3-point attempts in the first half. 

Helping Blossomgame on the offensive end were Donte Grantham, Shelton Mitchell and Avry Holmes. The trio combined for 24 points while shooting 9-of-16 from the floor. 

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