Carolina had no answer for SMU yesterday afternoon, as the Mustangs used a stunning 58-point second half to snap the Tar Heels’ seven-game winning streak on Saturday.
It was as ugly a game for the UNC frontcourt as we’ve seen all year. SMU outscored Carolina 36-28 in the paint, and only lost the rebounding battle 30-29. Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar combined to shoot 10-of-22 with five turnovers, and Jarin Stevenson ran into foul trouble that snuffed out the spark he provided off the bench.
It makes
me shudder to think how much worse this game would have been without Seth Trimble. In addition to shouldering the scoring load, he was given a lot of on-ball responsibility after Kyan Evans proved ineffective. All things considered, he did well, finishing with a season-high 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting (including 3-of-7 threes), five assists, and zero turnovers. He was the only UNC starter who didn’t commit a turnover.
Trimble hasn’t been a serious threat from deep throughout his career, but this is the second time in four games he’s delivered a strong performance in that area (he was 3-of-5 on 3-pointers against Ohio State). If these aren’t outliers and he’s truly expanded that part of his game, that’s a huge positive.
