In the North Carolina men’s basketball team’s second game of the season, the team was unselfish. The Tar Heels were giving things away left and right.
They gave Holy Cross hope, letting what should have been a blowout remain close for 39 minutes.
They gave the Crusaders too many opportunities on offense — being out rebounded 25-20 and gave away too many opportunities on their end of the court, missing 37 shots in the game.
But when the final buzzer sounded, the Tar Heels gave a sigh of relief. They had survived Holy Cross’s crusade and emerged with an ugly, 62-54 win.
North Carolina only had four turnovers in the first half according to the box score, but with the amount of missed shots that UNC did not recover, the Tar Heels gave Holy Cross a multitude of extra possessions.
“We didn’t have any second-chance points,” coach Roy Williams said.
In the first half, UNC shot 27.3% from the field. The team missed 24 shots, but only pulled down four offensive rebounds.
“I think my freshman year we were the No. 1 rebounding team in the country and just looking at this year’s team — we’re so big, especially when I play the three … There’s no way a team should outrebound us,” junior forward James Michael McAdoo said.
“(There’s) no real potion for it, we’ve just got to come out and want it more next game.”
While there wasn’t a potion for UNC’s deficiency on the glass, there was an ailment, and it was the potent offense of sophomore guard Marcus Paige.
Paige netted a career-high 23 points to lead all scorers in the game. It was his first 20-point plus game in a UNC uniform.
Paige’s three three-pointers were the most among any player, but he was also the only UNC player to hit one.
“Marcus was hot,” freshman guard Nate Britt said. “He was carrying us throughout the whole game. He put the team on his back.”
Williams said that Paige — who has been able to show his true colors as a reliable scorer now that Britt has taken over at point — has to be an integral part of the squad if the team is to be successful.
“He was a big time player for us tonight, he really was,” Williams said. “He’s our best shooter and other guys need to work harder to help him get open.”
But even when they couldn’t, Paige delivered. Down three points in the second half, Paige poked the ball away from his opponent at the top of the key and ran the floor for a layup that sparked a Tar Heel run.
During the 18-3 spurt, Paige, Brice Johnson and J.P. Tokoto accounted for 16 of UNC’s points.
It was during short sequences like that that the Tar Heels showed how they should be playing this season. Though they came away with a win, it should not have been a game where that was a questionable outcome. Paige acknowledged that, but added that perhaps having to fight was beneficial to UNC.
“We know we can play a lot better than we did tonight,” he said. “But it was good to have a little adversity. That makes us a better team in the long run.”
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