Tar Heels Humble Tech At McCamish
9th-ranked North Carolina Brushes Tech Aside With 2nd Half Onslaught In 77-54 Win
Roy Williams brought his team to Atlanta Tuesday riding a 3 game win streak, all in the ACC. They came to take on a team that had extended Duke deep into the 2nd half just 3 days ago. On this night though, the talented team from Chapel Hill looked vastly superior, dominating the Yellow Jackets in an almost off-handed manner.
Cameron Johnson and Coby White led the Heels with 22 and 19 points respectively. Combined, these two shot 15 of 23 from the field, including a near-ridiculous 9 of 15 from 3 point range. UNC as a team was 13-27 from distance, a far cry from Tech’s defensive results in Durham last weekend when they held Duke to 2-21 from behind the arc.
Even with those rough numbers, Tech hung around through halftime trailing 31-24. What followed was a 10 minute blitz that Roy Williams later told Josh Pastner was the best basketball his team has played all year. In that stretch was a 15-0 Carolina run which effectively ended any minimal remaining suspense about the outcome.
“We got lucky and made some shots”, said Roy Williams, continuing, ” Things look better when the ball goes in.”
The Tar Heels built the lead to 30 with 10 minutes to go, whereupon Williams emptied his bench, using 14 players in all. Among those was Nassir Little, a former 5 star recruit who had also considered Tech. Little scored 9 points in 22 minutes of play.
As for Georgia Tech, the evening showed some familiar features. Difficulty scoring. Trouble finding a good shot before the clock runs low. And on several occasions, failing to hit on what Pastner called good looks. “We got good looks”, lamented Tech’s head man. “They just didn’t go down.” He honed in on his guards’ play, saying “I told Jose (Alvarado) and Michael (Devoe), they’ve got to be better for us and stay locked in. They did get 10 rebounds and I’m proud of that.”
Tech’s scoring was led by AD Gueye with 14 points followed by Devoe with 9. James Banks added 7 as he and Gueye shot a combined 10 of 20 from the floor.
Abdoulaye Gueye was again effective inside with his short range hook.
Tech’s 3 point shooting was a miserable 2 of 16, prompting Pastner to reflect later on his early season prediction that this would be a good shooting team. He said he based that assessment on early practices and preseason work, but realizes that has not been the case. And when he gained James Banks early in the season he saw better production inside and thus has pushed the ball inside as a primary offensive strategy.
That inside game is compromised by the now chronic inability to hit an outside shot when the ball gets kicked back out, or even in transition. Carolina certainly plays good defense, but as Pastner noted, many of Tech’s misses came on those “good looks”, shots that he wants his players to take.
Josh Pastner noted that his 3 guards hit only 7 of 29 shots.
On the plus side, the Yellow Jackets did hit 10 of 13 free throws, an improvement over last Saturday’s effort.
Moses Wright hit both of his free throws. Tech overall was 10-13 from the line
As for his team’s performance, Roy Williams was reasonably pleased- but not thrilled. ”I wanted to push the pace, rebound well and get back on defense. We did one of three”, said the UNC coach. “We gave up 8 second chance points–that’s too many.” UNC travels to Louisville Saturday for a much-anticipated rematch with the Cardinals who beat them soundly earlier this year. Williams is looking for a better performance from forward Luke Maye next time out. “I’ve never seen Luke play like that” said Williams following the win over Tech. “Five turnovers. Goodness, you can’t have that. I don’t care if you’re the center or point guard or what.” Maye scored only 4 points in the runaway win.
Georgia Tech (11-10, 3-5) goes to Tallahassee on Saturday to take on Florida State. The Seminoles are 15-5 overall, including a 9-1 record at home. They are 3-4 in ACC play.
At the halfway point of the ACC schedule, Georgia Tech is 3-5, which is about where they were pegged. There have been some highs (win over Syracuse, stout play vs Duke) and some lows, including this game against UNC. On that topic, Pastner expressed his admiration for the programs in place at Duke and North Carolina. His stated goal is to join the league elite. But he cautions,” We can’t skip steps to get to the level of Duke and North Carolina. I love our group, but we’re not there yet.”
No, they are not. Not by a long shot.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports