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Off the cuff: Check back later for more commentary on the Michigan State game and a look ahead to Thursday's game.

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It's good to get a relatively easy win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Especially since the Tar Heels won't get fat and happy after the 28-point victory over Wagner. There's enough to work on.

Hopefully, Elliott Cadeau got a wake-up call in the first half after turning the ball over four times. Carolina is unlikely to survive against Michigan State with such a performance.

Without mentioning names, RJ Davis said, "In the first half, we didn't do a good job of getting out on the break." That's an understatement as all of Carolina's 14 fastbreak points came in the second half.

The bad vibes extended on the defensive end as RJ Davis said the Heels "slacked off a little bit" and miscommunicated or didn't communicate well with each other.

If not for Jae'Lyn Withers flying all over the place, taking over the game, the Tar Heels would have been in a dogfight at the start of the second half.

As it was, the 12-point halftime advantage was comfortable enough and then the larger, deeper, more talented Heels put Wagner away in the second half.

Carolina won't have the same luxuries against a Michigan State team that played one of its best games of the season earlier in the day.

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Archives

Click here to go to the football page.
Click here to keep up with the 2008 run to the World Series.

Carolina Football: Golden anniversary of a redeeming 50-0 victory over Duke.

Carolina Football: Excerpts from an article on the history of the Carolina-Duke rivalry.

 


Carolina 85, Michigan State 69
Heels rally to defeat tough Michigan St.
A physical, aggressive Michigan State team put North Carolina on notice early as the Spartans raced out to 12-point lead. But after a fiery UNC coach Hubert Davis went ballistic during a timeout, the Tar Heels matched and exceeded the competitive fire, going on to beat a tough Michigan State team 85-69. (3/21) 

Down 26-14, Carolina rallied to go on a commanding 26-5 run that turned the game around that put the Tar Heels in front 40-31 at the half.

"He instills confidence in us at time like that when we go down 12," Armando Bacot said of his coach.

RJ Davis, who led Carolina with 20 points, said, "Coach Davis gives us that passion, fire and competitive spirit to play to the best of our abilities." He said that the timeout speech really got the Tar Heels going as the team responded immediately.

Coach Davis said that Michigan State punched them first and the Tar Heels didn't match their physical aggression. "We started to compete," he said. "We joined the fight."

That game-changing run was fueled by five threes by three different Carolina players - Davis, Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan. Ingram hit his third three of the run just seconds before halftime.

"Today I was open and I was able to hit the shots," said Ingram, who finished five of seven from three for 17 points. "But we're all about team. I was just able to hit them today."

The Tar Heels hit six of 16 from three in the first half and finished 10 of 28 in the game for 38 percent. The Heels shot 47 percent from the floor compared to 44 percent for Michigan State.

It didn't start that was as the Spartans hit seven of their first 10 shots to get a double-digit lead at 17-7.

"They brought the fight and were really killing us but then our defense started going for the rest of the game," Bacot said.

Carolina blocked six shots and came up with five steals. The Heels scored 16 points off 11 Michigan State turnovers.

The Tar Heels did lose the rebounding battle for the first time in 25 games, 37-32. Carolina didn't get an offensive rebound until a tip in by Bacot put the Heels up 48-43 with 16 minutes left. But UNC was effective after that outscoring the Spartans in second-chance points 10-2.

The game stayed close for much of the second half until a 14-2 run erased any doubt of the outcome. A free throw by Davis gave the Tar Heels their biggest lead at 76-59 with 3:35 to go.

Michigan State, who finish the season 20-15, were led by Tyson Walker's 24 points.

Bacot and Ryan joined Davis and Ingram in double figures with 18 and 14 points respectively. The Tar Heels, now 29-7, advance to the West Regional semi-finals in Los Angeles to play the winner of Sunday's game between Alabama and Grand Canyon on Thursday.

Box score



Carolina 90, Wagner 62
UNC outmans Wagner, breaks it open
North Carolina, rebounding from a disappointing ACC Tournament Title loss, was too big, too deep and too talented for Wagner as the Tar Heels won going away 90-62 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Charlotte. (3/21) 

Although Wagner never led, it was uncomfortably close early on as Carolina had trouble getting out in transition without turning the ball over. But then, Charlotte native Jae'Lyn Withers and Armando Bacot were beasts inside, helping the Tar Heels get some distance from Wagner.

With the score tied at 13-13 after the first seven minutes of the game, Carolina went on a 16-6 run to go up 31-21. During that run, Withers had seven points and an assist.

"I think he did set the tone," UNC coach Hubert Davis said about Withers, adding that the Heels were out of sync early on with several unforced turnovers. "He came off the bench and he ignited us."

It was Withers best game of the season as he scored a season-high 16 points and hauled in 10 rebounds. "My family is sitting courtside and I get a double-double so it's great," Withers said.

First-team All-America RJ Davis and third-team All-America Armando Bacot did their usual damage scoring 22 and 20 points respectively. Bacot led all rebounders with 15. The Tar Heels outrebounded Wagner 43-24.

Wagner, who had several injuries during the season, was playing with just seven players and both of their big men got in trouble in the first half. Still, Carolina had not broken the game open yet as the Heels led 40-28 at the break.

In the first half, RJ Davis said the Heels didn't do a good job of getting out on the fastbreak on offense and didn't do a good job communicating on defense, leading to some open threes which Wagner hit.

That all changed in the second half as Carolina outscored Wagner 50-34. The lead got as high as 30 at 88-58 when Paxson Wojcik drilled a deep three late in the game. The scout team even got into the action as Dewey Farris passed to Rob Landry on a nice play with less than a minute to go.

It won't be that easy as Saturday's second-round opponent Michigan State looked solid against Mississippi State to advance to play UNC.

Julian Brown and Mel Council each scored 18 points to lead Wagner who finishes the season with a 17-16 mark.

Joining Davis, Bacot and Withers in double figures for Carolina was Cormac Ryan with 13 points. The Tar Heels, now 28-7, advance to the second round against ninth-seeded Michigan State in Charlotte on Saturday.

Box score



 

2022-2023 UNC Season Preview

Read about any UNC basketball game since 2007-2008
Other old archived headlines:
2012-2013 UNC basketball season preview
2010-2011 season began with Late Nite with Roy

ESPN blows it - What were they thinking?
Read about UNC's 2010 football bowl win
Readers weighed in on Tar Heels' 2009-2010 troubles
Shorthanded Heels get big game from freshmen in opener
Season Review: UNC baseball had one of its best years in 2008
Carolina basketball's run ends after comeback falls short
Tar Heels run out of gas against Fresno State
Season Review: Carolina ends season where it wanted - in Omaha

Flack does it in the clutch again as Tar Heels fight on
Federowicz heroics keep UNC alive in College World Series
Carolina in the College World Series again
UNC is one win away from third straight trip to the World Series

Carolina baseball advances to host Super Regional starting Saturday
Heels defeats UNC-Wilmington 7-3 with five-run inning
UNC's wins over Miami vault Heels to No. 1 in the nation
Carolina baseball reaches 40-game win mark
Tar Heels take two of three from Florida State

Also, check out my articles for the UNC alumni Web site on Carolina's 8-4 win over LSU, the 5-3 loss to Fresno State, the 7-3 win over LSU, the 4-3 victory over Fresno State and the season-ending loss to Fresno State.

© 2024 CB3media Cary, NC

Barnes

Heel Prints reviewed each UNC game
As a student sports editor years ago, prior to the season, Clifton Barnes predicted a national championship for the Tar Heels and indeed they won. In fact he wrote his lede paragraph for the national championship game almost a year early. He regrets that he didn't keep a journal after each game. He kept a journal after each game of the 2007-2008 season and you can reach them here. At the request of readers, he has kept up his journal of each game ever since. He also has written about UNC baseball and wrote an analysis after each 2008 UNC football game.

 

Editor's Note: HeelPrints chronicled the UNC basketball, baseball and football seasons for 2008 and 2009. Since the vast majority of comments I get about the site relate to basketball and since this isn't a paying job for me, I decided to limit my coverage and analysis to basketball. Baseball and football will remain archived and if I have comments or opinions I want to make on those or any other sports at UNC, I will make them here on the front page and then archive them in the corresponding sports section. Thanks for all the positive comments I have received about the site. Should I get sponsorship in the future, I will reconsider adding baseball and football again. Ironically, my favorite sports to watch in person are baseball and football. But my first connections to UNC came from watching Dean Smith's basketball teams on TV or listening to them on the radio in the days before all the games were televised. It should come as no surprise that people pay more attention to the basketball coverage. Thanks for your interest in this site.