It doesn’t matter if you lead for nearly the entire game if you don’t lead at the right time, and Carolina’s poor defense allowed Stanford to shoot themselves to a 95-90 victory Wednesday night. The Tar Heels could not defend the long ball from the Cardinal and it was enough to sink them.
UNC went nearly four minutes without a field goal in the waning minutes of the game while Stanford went on a 7-0 run. Ebuka Okorie was nearly unstoppable, pouring on a career-high 36 points. Jeremy Dent-Smith missed
just one shot on his way to 20 points, including six three-pointers. Ryan Agarwal hit five threes and scored 20 points. Stanford shot 57% from the field in the second half, well below UNC’s 65% mark, but the edge in threes was enough. The Heels made just one of their nine attempts from three in the second half.
Carolina had their chances to survive the onslaught of threes. They shot 32 free throws to Stanford’s 23, but they made only 20 of them. The Heels made six three pointers but gave up 16. That isn’t exactly a winning recipe. Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar scored 26 points each to lead Carolina. Veesaar was a primary offender of the free throw line woes, going just 6-11 from the stripe. Luka Bogavac and Seth Trimble finished with 13 points each.
It has been glaringly obvious that this team would lose a game at the free throw line this season, and it was definitely a contributing factor in this one, but the bigger issue is their complete inability to defend the three. It has been brewing for a while now and it has to be fixed if they hope to reach the goals that felt attainable earlier this season. The defense, in general, has been a real issue in Carolina’s last few games. They’ve allowed 90+ in two of their last three and only missed a perfect 3/3 by six points against Wake Forest. It’s a concerning trend to say the least.
UNC stays out west for a date against Cal on Saturday.
