At the 11:19 mark of the second half, sophomore Brandon Robinson stepped up to the free throw line in Littlejohn Coliseum.
No. 19 UNC trailed No. 20 Clemson, 52-48. After a fiery halftime speech from head coach Roy Williams, the Tar Heels had outscored the Tigers, 20-8, and cut their 16-point halftime deficit to four.
Robinson, who entered the game shooting 8-9 on free throws for the season, did not make Clemson pay for the cardinal sin of fouling a 3-point shooter. He missed his first, then his second, before making his third.
And, from that point forward, Joel Berry II and Cameron Johnson scored 100 percent of UNC’s points. They came on free throws, on catch-and-shoot jumpers, on pick-and-roll layups. When the buzzer sounded on North Carolina’s third consecutive ACC loss, the two players had scored the last 29 for their team.
Johnson finished with a career-high 32 on 10-18 shooting. Berry had 27 on 10-16. The graduate transfer and senior guard combined for nine 3-pointers and 10 made free throws, on 10 attempts. They were responsible for just over 75 percent of UNC’s total offensive production on the night.
“Joel and Cam were our offense because we weren’t getting much from anyone else," Williams said afterward. “I don’t like it to just be two guys. Our best teams? It’s never been just two guys. Our best team — it’s going to be four or five or six.”
It’s not just that UNC’s best teams haven’t featured two high-volume scorers. Berry and Luke Maye are the first duo in North Carolina history to both average over 17 points per game since Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins during the 1983-84 season. Through 23 games, Berry and Maye have 324 and 322 field goal attempts, respectively. No other player has more than 197.
Tuesday night, however, was the first time Johnson truly replaced Maye as UNC’s secondary scorer in game. In the second half, he was the Tar Heels’ top offensive option, taking over a role Berry has rightfully held all season. It was Johnson who took the shot, a contested left-block jumper that fell short, after Clemson went up 77-74.
“All I had to do was make shots that I’ve shot a million times,” said Johnson, who credited his teammates who set the screens to free him up more than he did himself.
