University of North Carolina Athletics
Hargrave Downs JV Tar Heels, 92-78
February 27, 2016 | JV Men's Basketball
After a long-awaited and hard-fought rematch against Hargrave Military Academy's Postgraduate team, the JV Tar Heels fell to the Tigers 92-78 on February 20.
Hargrave's postgraduate program acts as a prep team for students hoping to play for larger universities later in their basketball career. With a 42-1 record and five players already committed to state schools for next season, the Hargrave Tigers were certainly Carolina's toughest matchup of the season. Despite Hargrave's impressive statistics and size advantage, the Tar Heels held their own on Saturday. After an early 34 point deficit and field goal drought, Carolina found their rhythm, cutting the lead by 16 points, and sending the Tigers back to the locker room at halftime with a five-minute scoring drought of their own.
Despite the tough loss, Coach C.B. McGrath was very proud of the way his team turned the game around after their slow start. "We just got shell-shocked. They're really athletic, they attacked us from the start, and we had a hard time getting the ball up the court to begin with. But, at least we didn't quit… You could see why they're different from every other team we've played. They're definitely in great shape and this is the first time our boys have faced Division 1 athletes."
Hargrave ran a full-court press the entire game, another first for the season, but the Tar Heels quickly adjusted to the defense.
"Andy Gillespie and Brooks Palmer came out much more aggressive in the second half and once they started to attack the ball, everyone else sort of realized, 'Hey, we can do this.'"
Palmer, a freshman for the Tar Heels, led the team in points and rebounds in the second half.
"I thought we came out and were shocked at the pressure they put on us, but after we calmed down, we were able to slow it down and when they got kind of risky with the press, we started getting more of the shots we wanted."
Though the Tar Heels outscored Hargrave in the second half, multiple missed free throws and second-chance shots under the basket desperately hurt their chances of a comeback. However, both McGrath and his team agreed that it was an improvement from their last two games.
"Even though we won our last two games, we definitely stepped it up today," said senior Mike Hutter, another leading scorer of the afternoon. "I think we played really well together after having a rough start… We were able to get our heads about us and eventually closed the lead to 8 or 9. All in all we played tough, we competed, and we didn't give up. That was the biggest thing, we wanted to compete- to make it a game- and that's what we did."