Prior to Saturday’s game, UNC-Chapel Hill basketball coach Roy Williams likened the struggles his team has experienced this season to the situation in Haiti, where a massive earthquake a few weeks ago killed about 230,000 people.
“Massage therapist told me, she said, ‘You know, coach, what happened in Haiti is a catastrophe. What you’re having is a disappointment.’ I told her that depends on what chair she was sitting in,” Williams said. “Because it does feel like a catastrophe to me, because it is my life.”
The Tar Heels enjoyed a brief reprieve from the ‘catastrophe’ of a season they are mired in with a win over N.C. State, which is in last place in the ACC with a 2-9 record in conference play. Carolina entered the game winless in its last four games since defeating the Pack Jan. 26 in Raleigh.
Going into the rematch with the Heels, State had won just one of its past six games, with the lone victory coming in the form of a blowout against North Carolina Central. The Pack faced a struggling and injured team, as the Heels announced Friday that forward Ed Davis, who led the team in rebounds, will be out for six weeks with a broken wrist. Davis joined fellow injured front court players Tyler Zeller and Travis Wear on the Carolina bench.
“We talked about this,” said junior forward Tracy Smith, who finished with 20 points. “This year I just don’t think they are as strong as they have been in the past couple years. So this was our time to hit them and we didn’t capitalize. It’s very disappointing.”
UNC grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the first half, but the Pack offset that with seven of its own and 11 first half points from Smith. As has been the case in several of the recent losses, State went to the locker room for halftime facing a narrow deficit at 33-31.
But the rebounding woes worsened over the final twenty minutes as the Heels grabbed 10 more offensive boards in the second half to finish the game with 17 offensive rebounds and the same number of second-chance points. For the game, State was outrebounded 44-32 and lost the battle of second-chance points 17-9.
“[Dexter] Strickland, Larry Drew, they were all crashing the glass,” Smith said. “We were boxing out the ‘bigs’ and the guards were coming right in and the ball was bouncing right to them.”
The Pack held the Heels to 38 percent shooting from the field during the second half while shooting 42 percent over the final twenty minutes, but coach Sidney Lowe said he was not pleased with his team’s decision making.
“We came out [in the second half] and made some really bad decisions,” Lowe said. “That’s one of the things that’s been killing us here lately: really understanding how to win games. What we are lacking is that experience and understanding, that poise.”
State will return to action when it hosts Maryland Wednesday at 9 p.m. at the RBC Center. The Terps come to Raleigh looking to rebound from a 77-56 loss to Duke Saturday.
