GoHeels Exclusive: Pinson In Attack Mode

Wednesday, November 15

Chapel Hill

8:00 PM

North Carolina

Bucknell

Theo Pinson aggressively attacked the rim in Wednesday's win.

Photo by: Robert Crawford

November 16, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers

Box Score

By: Pat James

by Pat James

CHAPEL HILL—In the days following North Carolina's season-opening win over Northern Iowa on Friday, Theo Pinson kept hearing the same spiel from his teammates.

Pinson attempted six shots against the Panthers. All of them came from behind the arc. But he only made one en route to finishing with three points in 26 minutes. So, leading up to Wednesday's home game against Bucknell, Pinson, a career 26.8 percent 3-point shooter, said his teammates encouraged him to do what he does best.

"Everybody just kept telling me, 'Theo, do you realize every time you get to the paint something good happens?'" he said. "So, I just tried to stay in attack mode and do what I do."

And in the ninth-ranked Tar Heels' 93-81 victory over the Bison, that approach yielded one of the best offensive performances of Pinson's career.

After twice scoring 13 points, he finished with a career-high 19 on Wednesday. He also shared the team lead in assists for the second time in as many games, marking the 23rd time in his career that he's paced UNC in that category.

Roy Williams hesitated to praise Pinson postgame after he didn't box out on a missed 3-pointer late in the first half or close out on a made 3-pointer midway through the second. But Pinson's overall performance was vital against a relentless Bucknell team.

"I chewed on him a little bit," said Williams, who earned his 400th career win at UNC and 200th at the Smith Center. "But after that point, I thought he was really something. He made some huge baskets for us."

The Tar Heels (2-0) led by as many as 16 points Wednesday. But with about 12 1/2 minutes remaining, the Bison (0-3) only trailed by one.

UNC pushed its lead back up to eight moments later before Bucknell pulled within four with 6 1/2 minutes left. Finally, the Tar Heels put the game out of reach with a decisive 9-0 run that Pinson initiated when he drove the length of the floor, drew a foul and made two free throws.

The free throws accounted for two of the 10 points Pinson scored or assisted on in the final five minutes, 42 seconds. They also helped him finish with a career-best nine made free throws in 10 attempts – surpassing his previous highs of 6-for-8 against Fairfield on Nov. 15, 2015.

"When you get in the bonus that early, you can't settle," he said. "You've got get to the cup. I tried to do that at will and just put pressure on the defense, realizing that every time I got to the cup something good happened."

Pinson also showed why he's perhaps UNC's best facilitator with six assists. Four of those came on the team's first 11 made field goals, setting the tone on a night when the Tar Heels registered 22 total assists.

Even then, Pinson still managed to attempt a career-high 12 shots. Only three were 3-pointers. But yet again, he didn't make one and is now 1-for-9 on the season.

Still, after Pinson spent a majority of the offseason working on his perimeter shot and by most accounts made improvements in that area, Joel Berry II said he remains confident in Pinson's ability to score from behind the arc.

"His strong point is being able to get to the basket and finish or dump it off," Berry said. "But honestly, I still want to see him shoot the 3 because we don't want to see him thinking. I just want him to get lost in the game and be able to just play and do what he does."

If so, perhaps Wednesday was just a glimpse of more to come.