In its first game in two years, the North Carolina JV men's basketball team dominated Voyager Academy, 76-32, on Friday afternoon in the Dean E. Smith Center.
What happened?
The game got off to a quick start, with Voyager Academy winning the tip and immediately scoring after a drive to the basket.
UNC found an immediate response, when sophomore Ty’Rell McLucas sank a 3-pointer after running the ball back down the court. The teams then traded possessions before the North Carolina defense settled into a consistent rhythm.
Both teams went scoreless for almost two minutes, until UNC sophomore Nyikos Fritts was able to capitalize and score off a breakaway layup. This seemed to swing the momentum fully in the Tar Heels favor, as they began to dominate possession.
This was largely due to an aggressive, full-court press defensive method that forced multiple turnovers on behalf of the Voyagers that UNC was able to convert into points. Five minutes into the game, North Carolina had already tripled the score of its opponent and led 18-6.
This domination only grew, as the Vikings shooting abilities went cold. They attempted to combat this with a time out with 12:40 left on the clock, but it was to no avail as UNC came out of the break and immediately found first-year William Tyndall empty at the bottom of the key to put up another two points.
The rest of the period followed a similar trajectory, ultimately culminating in a score of 51-19 at halftime.
Voyager looked for redemption in the second half, implementing an aggressive offensive strategy that saw them immediately put two on the scoreboard. However, poor shooting accuracy and an inability to capitalize off the free throw line caused them to stagnate and the team never closed the gap to under 30 points.
