Lucas: Appalachian St. Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Carolina got what it needed in a pre-Christmas 70-50 win over Appalachian State. The Tar Heels weren't great but they were good, and everyone can go home for Christmas feeling they did a little something to aid the win.

2. Chief among those winning characteristics: the Tar Heels did a much better job on the backboards than they did in Las Vegas. Coming off a 44-26 rebounding demolition by Kentucky--the worst Tar Heel rebounding deficit since 2009--Carolina was more active both offensively and defensively. One of the standouts: Brady Manek, who collected six first half rebounds, including two on the offensive end, and finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for his first UNC double-double. Armando Bacot got his usual double-double (16 points and 10 rebounds). Carolina had a bigger edge throughout the game and finished with a 47-33 advantage on the boards.

3. Encouraging night for Kerwin Walton. The sophomore did not play in the first half, but entered 15:39 left in the second half. The Tar Heels ran an inbounds play for him soon after he entered, but he passed up a relatively open shot. A couple minutes later, though, he swished a three-pointer, and then knocked in another one shortly thereafter. Walton has had a rough month, and it was a savvy move by Hubert Davis to get him some extended playing time to try and get him back on track with conference play looming. Walton scored six points in 16 minutes and as a sign of his activity, he grabbed four rebounds--as many as in his previous five games combined.

4. RJ Davis was the difference-making guard for the Tar Heels. Davis completely controlled the second half tempo, when Carolina was extending the lead, and knocked in jumpers when he wasn't converting layups. The sophomore finished with 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, and on a night when the Heels turned it over too much, he had just one miscue against two assists.

5. About those turnovers: there were too many of them. Carolina coughed it up 15 times in a game that wasn't particularly frenetic. Luckily, App turned them into just 13 points. Conference opponents will take more advantage of that kind of carelessness with the ball.

6. It wasn't a great night for Caleb Love in that department, who didn't look as into the flow of the game as he has been recently. Battling foul trouble for some of the evening, Love also committed six turnovers. A slightly troubling note: Love now has 16 turnovers in his last four games. The good news, though, is that he also had five assists, which matched his total from the previous three games combined. He looked to be very conscious of getting others involved, sometimes even over-passing to try and find an open teammate.

7. The Carolina rotation continues to evolve. Anthony Harris entered the game just three minutes into the contest, and Justin McKoy also got some first half minutes. Then the second half starting lineup changed to include Manek instead of Dawson Garcia, and while Harris was again the first sub, Walton was the second. Beyond the starting five plus whichever of Manek and Garcia isn't a starter, it doesn't feel like anyone has absolutely earned guaranteed minutes going into conference play.

8. The Tar Heels shared the ball very effectively in the first half. They had ten assists on 13 field goals, with four of those assists being courtesy of Caleb Love. They finished with 17 assists on 29 field goals.

9. Carolina shot the ball much better from the outside on Tuesday than they have recently. The Tar Heels entered the game having made just 13-for-52 from three-point range in the last three games. But they hit seven-for-16 against the Mountaineers, including those two from Walton and two from Love. The flip side is that App was atrocious from the perimeter, hitting just 4-for-29 from three, which eliminated any chance the visitors had of making a second half run.

10. Keep in mind that despite the disappointing loss to Kentucky, Carolina now has nine wins going into Christmas--the most since the 2017-18 team. This is not a perfect team, and still has plenty to work on in the coming weeks and months. But it's also still a team that will have an impact in the league and has not come close to its ceiling yet.

11. If you're still looking for that last-minute holiday gift, there are lower level tickets available for some ACC games. You can buy online through the ticket office to pick your seats.

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Dawson Garcia

Anthony Harris

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Justin McKoy

Kerwin Walton

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