UNC stayed perfect so far this season with a 97-53 win over NC Central Friday night in Chapel Hill. Carolina really turned on the jets in the second half, scoring 58 points after halftime to secure the comfortable
victory. Caleb Wilson was very good once again, leading the team in both points and rebounds. The Tar Heels were careless with the ball in the first half, turning it over 10 times, but really cleaned up their act and did not turn it over at all in the second half.
Wilson bounced back from a so-so game by his standards earlier this week to finish with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and three assists. He was extremely efficient, making seven of his eight shots from the field and six of his eight free throw attempts. Wilson also turned it over just once. Henri Veesaar joined Wilson down low with 12 points and 11 rebounds. The two were able to clean up on the boards all night, helping with Carolina’s 18 second chance points. Luka Bogavac finished with 13 points including two three-pointers.
Hubert Davis used his bench liberally in this one, giving guys like Derek Dixon and Jonathan Powell some extended minutes. Dixon made three threes and Powell made two, each of them finishing with nine points. As a whole, the Heels shot 55% from the field and made 11 of their shots from long distance.
If the worst thing you can say about this team so far is that they occasionally don’t play with the gas pedal all the way to the floor against easier teams, things could definitely be worse. Maybe they played with their food a bit too much in the early going of this one, and maybe they have kept things closer than they needed to be at times in some of these early season games. They are also still very much finding their groove and their coach is obviously trying out various things while he has the ability to throw out weird lineups without consequence. As long as they don’t fall into the trap of last year’s team things will be alright.
Carolina will welcome Navy to Chapel Hill for their next game on Tuesday.
