Lucas: Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Good win against a quality and hot-shooting Davidson team in Charlotte. Davidson is good enough to shoot some opponents out of the game, but the Tar Heels kept playing, and eventually emerged with an 85-75 victory in the second game in three days.

2. The game was largely the Luke Maye and Joel Berry show. The junior had 24 points and 17 rebounds (24 points and 17 rebounds!) and Berry scored 27. And how productive were they? Davidson's Peyton Aldridge needed 22 shots to score 20 points. Berry, meanwhile, took 14 shots and Maye hoisted 18.

3. Carolina was extremely efficient offensively in the second half. The Tar Heels scored on 16 of their first 20 possessions when they didn't turn the ball over, and during that time pushed the lead out to 17 points. The biggest contributor to the offensive productivity was great shot selection, as Carolina continually made one extra pass to get a better shot. After getting five assists on 17 field goals in the first half, the Tar Heels had nine assists on 15 field goals in the second period.

4. The new, selective Theo Pinson was a big asset for Carolina. Pinson took just one three-pointer in the game against Michigan but said Roy Williams hadn't discussed his perimeter shot selection with him. But he clearly made a very good choice in the second half against Davidson, as he caught the ball on the left wing midway through the half with a good look at a three-pointer, but instead chose to drive to the rim for a much higher-percentage layup that he converted. Pinson is one of Carolina's best finishers at the rim.

5. The Carolina bench hadn't been very productive over the last three games, averaging just over 10 points per game in the last three contests. Brandon Robinson took care of that almost singlehandedly in the first half, pouring in eight points in the first half on a nice mixture of drives and jumpers. Then he combined with Sterling Manley to give the Tar Heels some good minutes in the second half, as Carolina was a total of +14 with Robinson on the court.

6. Manley entered the game in the second half at a time when it looked like the Heels might be better served to go smaller, as they were struggling to defend the Wildcats around the perimeter and weren't getting much offensively in the post. Manley quickly solved that, as he converted a three-point play, made a couple more hard moves in the paint, and blocked a shot.

7. The absence of Seventh Woods (strained left foot) opened some more minutes at point guard for Jalek Felton. The freshman had played a maximum of 15 minutes in the first seven games of the season, and had played just six, nine and nine minutes in the past three games. Felton even got some late game minutes paired with Joel Berry in the backcourt. Felton has consistently shown he has the wiggle to work free against most any defender. He hasn't yet consistently converted those drives to the basket.

8. Scariest moment of the night came with 5:14 left, when Joel Berry left favoring his leg. After a quick trip to the tunnel, though, he came back and re-entered the game, and everyone in blue breathed a sigh of relief.

9. Carolina dominated the glass, holding a 54-23 advantage in rebounding. Against a Davidson team that had been good at keeping opponents off the glass, the Tar Heels had 19 offensive rebounds and turned that into 25 points, a huge factor in the game.

Players Mentioned

Jalek Felton

Sterling Manley

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

Brandon Robinson

Seventh Woods

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