North Carolina Tar Heels: Eagles Beaten Late
The North Carolina Tar Heels escaped Chesnut Hill with a victory thanks to the play of Justin Jackson.
If you wondered what lessons the North Carolina Tar Heels had learned from their loss to Notre Dame then perhaps their victory over Boston College was not for you. The 68-65 score between the leading team in the conference and the last place team in the conference was just as close as the score indicated.
Boston College took its cues from Notre Dame and played a spread out game where their power forward was the shooter Ervins Meznieks for large stretches of time. They got a twenty-six point game out of guard Eli Carter, but that kind of thing happens to the Heels every now and then. The troubling thing was the clinic that center Dennis Clifford seemed to put opposing posts through to get his fourteen points. He went around Brice Johnson to score on multiple occasions.
The nature of the game caused the Heels to experiment with several different lineups. Early game action and early second half action resulted in plenty of Tar Heel errors. These included a rash of offensive fouls and saw both Johnson and Isaiah Hicks get their fourth fouls well before the time when the game would be decided. Turnovers were another problem, coming in spurts through the game.
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One of the Tar Heel down times occurred after head coach Roy Williams suffered a vertigo attack. As assistant coach Steve Robinson took over, the Heels needed a timeout to get straight with the game. The Tar Heels had already started three new players to send a message to the frontcourt, now they needed another adjustment.
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The player that filled the gap and brought the Tar Heels out of it was Justin Jackson. Jackson was one of the players benched at the beginning of the game. Jackson’s problem was that he had been too tentative in recent outings. He was more aggressive here and his twenty points kept the Heels in it. However they needed a little more to get over the top.
That little bit was provided from a big three pointer by Marcus Paige and a key steal by Kennedy Meeks on what really was the last chance for Boston College to tie the game. It saved a game where the defensive effort and assignments were carried out inconsistently at best.
The Tar Heels are back in Chapel Hill to face the Pitt Panthers on Sunday.