The only thing better than a crawfish dinner is five crawfish dinners.
– Coach Red Beaulieu (The Waterboy)
It may not have been the prettiest of games, but North Carolina was able to extend it’s opening
winning streak from four to five with their 73-61 win over Navy. The Midshipmen, who are the favorites to win their league, fell to 2-3 on the season — but didn’t go down without a fight.
Here are three takeaways from the Tar Heel’s latest win at the Dean Dome.
This Luka kid is going to be alright
There was a lot of hand-wringing when Luka Bogavac didn’t come out like a hot knife through butter after being held out of both of the team’s exhibition games due to eligibility questions.
However, he has only gotten better since those opening games, scoring in double figures for the third straight game (fourth time this season). He also had his best game from behind the arc, hitting 50% of his shots on the way to 16 points. Bogavac additionally had a season high in rebounds with six.
Sharing is Caring
The Tar Heels continued to show the value of passing the ball in last night’s game. North Carolina finished the outing with 15 assists on 24 made field goals, which brings their season total up to 90 assists on 146 made field goals (an assist rate of 61.6%).
Last season the team only had 513 assists in 37 games; this season’s team is already 17.5% of the way to the same number — just 5 games into the season — and the unselfishness is paying off with five double-digit wins in as many games.
Don’t make him angry. You won’t like him when he’s angry.
Last week against Radford, the Highlanders got physical with Caleb Wilson and Wilson had his “worst” game of the season, a 13 point, 14 rebound double-double in just 22 minutes of action.
Navy also got physical against Wilson, and again he struggled in the first 25 minutes of the game. However, the freshman seemingly got tired of trying to get the call and just decided to get angry, dunking the ball hard on the Midshipmen on three straight possessions in the second half.
Wilson finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds for his third straight double-double. The freshman star is now averaging a double-double on the season (20.6 ppg and 10 rpg), also added four steals and three blocks as he reminds Tar Heel fans there is no such thing as too many dunks.
