UNC Basketball: ‘We’re Not Finished Yet’
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina started the game on a twelve-to-two run, and it seemed as if UNC would run away in their senior night game at the Dean E. Smith Center against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest cut the lead to 65-63 with 8:43 left in the game. North Carolina answered every shot they needed down the stretch, and they defeated Wake Forest 93-83.
“We’re not finished yet,” said North Carolina head coach Roy Williams to the faithful fans who stayed for the senior speeches.
UNC’s three consecutive wins since their first loss against Michigan in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas Nov. 28, 2019, changed people’s mentality from ‘Where was this team months ago?’ to ‘Do they have enough to win the ACC Tournament next week in Greensboro?’
UNC’s qualms during their near-ACC-record-breaking losing streak: they can’t score, especially from the 3-point line; they’re not healthy; and they can’t finish games.
North Carolina freshman Cole Anthony shot 8-of-14 from the field, 4-5 3FG, and 8-8 FT, to finish as the game’s leading scorer with 28 points.
“Several games ago, I told (Anthony) I wanted him to be more efficient and I wanted his shots attempts to go down and his makes to go up,” Williams said. “I wanted his assists to go up, his turnovers to go down and his defensive play to keep getting better because I think that he can really be a very efficient point guard.
“We put him in a spot a couple of games ago where he felt like he had to score every possession for himself and his shot is much better than his percentage has been.”
Junior forward Garrison Brooks scored 20-plus points, 22, for his fifth consecutive game and senior guard Brandon Robinson finished with 18 points.
North Carolina shot above 50 percent from the floor, 50.8 percent tonight, in consecutive games for the first time all season; they scored 58 points in the second half, their highest-scoring half; and they’ve made 21 3-pointers the last two games.
“We realized (they’re not finished yet) when we were going through our tough times and going through our losing streak,” said UNC graduate guard Christian Keeling who finished with nine points. “And we always kept believing. Came to practice every day. Still worked hard like we had won and it’s glad to see it turnaround and everybody’s playing well. And these last two to three games have been a total team effort.”
The only team’s who UNC has not defeated in ACC-Play or lost by more than 10 points are Georgia Tech (9-9 ACC) Pittsburgh (6-13 ACC) and Lousiville (15-4 ACC).
“We’ve lost a lot of games by one point, last-second shots and a lot of those games were things that we did.” Robinson said, “So if we take away those mistakes and we’ve had our whole team gelling, our record would be completely different than what it is now and the story of our season would be so different. So that’s why we have so much confidence.
“… We don’t think can maybe (make a run) – we know we can do it.”
What’s Next
The Demon Deacons play the N.C. State Wolfpack (18-12, 9-10 ACC) Friday, Mar. 6, at PNC Arena in Raleigh.
North Carolina travels down tobacco road to play the Duke Blue Devils (24-6, 14-5 ACC) at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday, Mar. 7, at 6 p.m. after an OT thriller in their first matchup of the season.
(Feature image courtesy of Landon Bost)