Lucas: Dayton Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Incredible comeback by Carolina, coming back from down 18 at halftime and 21 in the second half to beat Dayton, 92-90. The surge matches the second biggest comeback in school history.

2. The Tar Heels put up a whopping 59 points in the second half, and RJ Davis finished with 30. The senior scored nine of Carolina's 14 points down the stretch and swished four of four at the line in the final 14.2 seconds.

3. But it wasn't just Davis. Seth Trimble scored a career high 27 and also had 10 rebounds, Drake Powell played some big second half minutes, and Jalen Washington recovered from some early struggles to make a couple big late baskets--and foul out Zed Key, who had been tormenting the Heels in the paint. As with any comeback like this, it's not just one player.

4. The Heels managed that end of game well. They were down four with 2:44 left after yet another Dayton three-pointer (the Flyers were 7-for-14 from three in the second half), but worked back with a big Davis three followed by a Powell three, and then let Davis take it home at the foul line. A late official's review of a Dayton corner three (the good news is Nate Santos still got to celebrate like it was a three, barking at the UNC bench, even though it was a two) changed the final seconds, allowing Carolina to play from ahead rather than tied.

5. Great timeout by Hubert Davis with 14 minutes left, just a "let them think about it" move with Dayton up by 14. Classic Dean Smith play, and it worked.

6. The comeback was made possible by a bad first half, in which Dayton completely dominated on the way to a 51-33 lead at the break. Nothing went right for Carolina in that stretch, from turnovers (the Heels had a season-high 12 of them in the first half alone, and the Flyers turned those into 19 points) to foul trouble (RJ Davis sat for an extended period with two fouls in a whistle-happy first 20 minutes) to the Dayton bench catching fire and posting a 28-4 edge in bench points.

7. That first half was more evidence for the case that as Cadeau goes, so go the Tar Heels. It was a completely uncharacteristic 19 minutes of action for the sophomore in that period, as he committed six turnovers, was whistled for a couple offensive fouls, handed out just two assists, and made just one of his two field goal attempts. Far and away the team's +/- leader this season, Cadeau was a stunning -20 in the first half.

8. Both Cadeau and the Tar Heels steadied their handle in the second half. UNC had just three turnovers in the final 20 minutes, and Cadeau had zero.

8. Credit to Dayton for doing a great job stopping the Tar Heel transition game for most of the game. Part of that defense was making shots, as the Flyers broke a season-long trend by getting hot from the three-point line (they made 7-for-18 from the arc in the first half). But another big part of it was Anthony Grant's team being fully committed to getting back on defense and forcing the Heels to do something other than run to the rim. The Heels ended up with 15 fast break points, down from a recent average of roughly 20 per game.

9. Remember that freshman progression is not always linear. Ian Jackson showed good signs on Friday night in Honolulu, but the more experienced Dayton guards took advantage of him defensively in Monday's first half.

10. The victory helps the Tar Heels cut down on an impressively small list. There had been only nine schools in the history of the sport with at least three games in the series against the Tar Heels who had a winning record against Carolina. Dayton was one of them, but that series now stands at 2-2 after Monday's win, so take the Flyers off the chart. That leaves only eight: Army, Georgetown, George Washington, Indiana, Iowa, NYU, Texas and West Virginia.

11. Carolina is now 36-5 in the state of Hawai'i. The Tar Heels are now 23-4 in all games in the Maui Invitational, including winning the event on four previous trips.

12. Carolina now advances to play Auburn, a team that looked very impressive in coming back to beat Iowa State earlier on Monday night. The emotional Tigers are deep and talented; that matchup will be Tuesday night at 11 p.m. Eastern Time and will match two teams that will both have to get back to peak performance after a big comeback on Monday.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

RJ Davis

Ian Jackson

Drake Powell

Seth Trimble

Jalen Washington

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