University of North Carolina Athletics
JV Beats CCCC And Milligan
February 19, 2016 | JV Men's Basketball
With only two games left, the JV Tar Heels return to the Dean Dome this Saturday morning to face one of their toughest opponents of the season, Hargrave Military Academy. In preparation for Saturday, the team is reflecting on their past two games.
Though they were both big wins, (101-79 over Central Carolina Community College and 97-57 over Milligan College), head coach C.B. McGrath is expecting much more from his team as they face Hargrave this Saturday and Greensboro Day on February 29th.
The win over Central Carolina was not a pretty one. The game started off with three missed free throws on UNC's end and multiple missed lay ups throughout the first twenty minutes of play. Right before the teams entered their locker rooms for halftime, Coach McGrath made it clear: the guys better come back out in the next half ready to play. Lucas Bouknight did just that, scoring most of his 24 points in the second half alone, as did Harrison Lancaster, who finished the afternoon with 16 points and several assists. However, even after the 22 point win, Coach McGrath still felt like the team seemed to be a bit "out of it," but he remains confident in his players. "The good news is, we can get better."
When the team returned to the gym for practice that week, all was back to normal, and Sunday's game against Milligan was much smoother. "We did have some silly turnovers in the first half, and we allowed some wide open 3's, but once I realized where they could shoot it, we adjusted our defense and the guys did a much better job of getting to the shooters," said Coach McGrath. "All in all, I'm pleased, but with two weeks left in our season we've got to play stronger as we face tougher teams." Kane Ma and Lancaster, who were leading scorers again for the Tar Heels, agreed. "We had fun, and we won, but this team was not nearly as good as the best team we've ever played, or as good as Hargrave is going to be, so we just need to have a good week of practice and build off of this," said Ma. Lancaster followed, "We're still not where we want to be. We have a great team full of 13 really good players, but we've yet to reach how good we can be. I think if we want to win our next two games, we have to reach that point."