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University of North Carolina Athletics
Felton, McCants Lead UNC past NC Central
November 8, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 8, 2003
Sophomore point guard Raymond Felton had 12 assists and four steals and Rashad McCants led all scorers with 26 points as the University of North Carolina beat North Carolina Central University, 97-59, Saturday in a men's college basketball exhibition game at the Smith Center.
McCants made 10 of 15 shots from the floor and added five assists and five steals. Felton committed only one turnover and was one of five Tar Heels in double figure scoring with 11 points. Jawad Williams (17), Sean May (15) and Melvin Scott (12) also joined in double figures for UNC. Scott added five assists and had just one turnover.
May added a team-high 10 rebounds, all on the defensive glass. Central out-rebounded the Tar Heels, 22-10, on the offensive boards.
The Tar Heels made 18 of their first 23 shots from the floor in the opening half (78.3 percent) and finished the half 18 for 29 (62.1 percent) in building a 51-28 lead at the break. McCants (14) and Williams (11) combined for 25 first-half points.
Carolina led by 29 at 51-22 with 4:01 left in the first half after a Felton dunk. The biggest lead of the contest was 51 points (97-46) with 4:08 to play after a Damien Price three-pointer.
Curtis Knight led the Eagles with 16 points, and Brandon Bowman had 14 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Bowman grabbed nine rebounds on the offensive end of the floor.
The Tar Heels had 27 assists on their 36 field goals and committed only a dozen turnovers. NC Central had 24 turnovers, including 13 in the opening half.
The Tar Heels return to play Thursday, November 13, against Team Nike. Tipoff is 7:30 p.m. at the Smith Center.
Postgame Press Conference - Coach Roy Williams
"It was good for our players to get to play somebody different as opposed to beating on each other everyday at practice. I think that was a big value for us, it was a value for us much so in a positive aspect that we were able to do some things that the other team didn't know what we were doing. The times that we executed some of our sets it was good, but there were a lot of times we didn't execute it. And that's something you need this kind of game for is the game slippage because I think that their concentration was up and down, up and down the entire game. We'd have spurts where we were really good, everybody was into it and everybody was into it defensively. Then we had other spurts where we were not very good. In some ways they sent a bad signal to the coach because they almost make me feel like they were not very good conditioned and that's not a good signal to send to the coach. I think we got a little tired and gave into some of that fatigue and we lost concentration. And I told them that our goal was to make this one game better than two practices - better than a practice in the first half and better than a practice in the second half. I think we accomplished some things. The good news is we've two more weeks before we have to open up for real and we have another game. We can't lose our concentration, defensively on particular as well as offense, but more on the defensive end to beat the real good teams. And that's what we're trying to do. I did not start Rashad because he's missed the five days of practice. It was just that he'd missed the work, and he knew he was going to play and it was no problem. Jackie's really done some nice things Melvin has shot the ball, the first week of practice he couldn't make anything and since then he's really shot it well. He didn't make as many today, but we've got six or seven guys that have shown that they can be productive at this level and those guys are going to be the ones that play the most. Out of the other guys I'd say Justin Bohlander again did some nice things. He's not very mature compared to some of those other guys physically, but he does have a good feel for the game. He's the kind of player that can help us and we need him to help us.
On Rashad McCants' play: "Well, I think one thing is that Rashad McCants can score. That's a great talent. He can shoot the ball, he can put it on the floor, he can take it to the basket. I've wanted him to focus on being a complete and total basketball player. We saw him give a great defensive effort out there a couple times and we've got to get him to do that the entire game. It was a bad quad strain and it was something that bothered him. We held him out I think it was five straight days and when he came back in we held him out of practice. Wednesday he was off, and Thursday and Friday were the first full practices he's had in 10 or 12 days. But I'm not worried about Rashad. If that's my biggest worry then I'm in a pretty neat position.
What are your biggest worries for this year? "Depth, the ability to rebound the basketball, and the ability to take care of the basketball. I think we've been horrible in practice handling the ball. I also hated that they had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half and we had five, and for the game they had 22 offensive rebounds while we had 10. You can't do that. Now of course when the other team shoots 33 percent, they're going to have a lot more offensive rebound opportunities than we do if we shoot 56 percent. But you can't give up 22 offensive rebounds. And with depth, we have foul problems we're in trouble."
Player Quotes Rashard McCants
How are you feeling? "I am almost one-hundred percent. I am right about ninety or ninety-two percent, somewhere around in there. Right now I feel good mentally and physically."
How well are you guys adjusting to Coach Williams? "We are adjusting real well. The only real adjustment is conditioning. You have to be in greater shape to be in this type of program because we are constantly running offense and defense. We are getting there."
What do you feel the team has done as a group as far as coming along these first three weeks? "Just paying attention to detail and listening to what he is saying. We respect the coach and he respects us. We definitely pick our level up each day we go to practice. We get better and better. That is all it was. He expects us to pick up our intensity a lot more everyday."
This was a game where you finally got to play as a team, how did you feel things worked out? "Things went fairly well but there is much room for improvement. We definitely have to get better."
Coach Williams wants the team to constantly run the ball, is that going to be a hard adjustment for this team?
"It's not going to be an adjustment, just something that we are going to have to do for forty minutes. Right now we do it in ten-minute spurts and then we stop. We just have to do it for forty minutes, "
How is the team enjoying the style of play?
"The style is definitely fun, it is just pushing the ball up the court and making things happen; getting a chance to pick somebody off the dribble, making a nice pass to one of your teammates and they knock down a shot. That makes your feel good. It was a great experience and we had fun with it. It was good to play against somebody instead of playing against ourselves because we know the plays that we are going to run. So to just execute our plays and our offense and defense against somebody else was a lot of fun."
How does the team have to adjust in David Noel's absence?
"David is another banger, another guy who is athletic on the team. David can do everything; he can play just about three or four positions. That hurt us a little bit, but we have guys that can pick up the slack, but we cannot wait until we get him back."
