The Tar Heels, coming off a horrible road loss to NC State, got their act together to get a big Quad 1 road win over Syracuse on Saturday night, to complete the season sweep. North Carolina fell behind early in the first and let the Orange tie it up a couple times in the second, but in the end they were able to pull away for the comfortable 13-point victory.
So who deserves player of the game?
Well first lets look at a couple of guys who deserve honorable mention. The first is Zayden High, who lost
his starting gig in this game but still provided depth off the bench, coming up just one point shy of a second consecutive double-double (nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds). Considering that, before Tuesday, High had zero career double-doubles, that would’ve been quite the feat. However, he fouled out on a double technical with Donnie Freeman, who also fouled out with his second tech (a trade I would make any day of the week and twice on Sundays, by the way), and wasn’t able to get that final point.
Additional shout-outs go to Luka Bogavac and Seth Trimble, who combined to score 26 points and grab 11 rebounds. While Bogavac was aggressive and Trimble had all 13 of his points in the second run to help the Tar Heels pull away, the duo were just a combined 6 of 14 from the line, a trend for most of the team against Syracuse.
No, the player of the game goes to no other than Henri Veesaar, who returned today after missing the past two games with a lower body injury. Veesaar finished with a team-high 19 points and also had three blocks for North Carolina. Even discounting those blocks, Veesaar’s presence was felt on the defensive side where Syracuse star Donnie Freeman finished with just nine points on 3 of 8 shooting. Veesaar definitely had some rust, but it was clear the team missed their big man. If he had missed his third game, the Tar Heels might’ve been looking at yet another frustrating road loss this season.
Do you think someone else should be player of the game? Let us know in the comments below.
