UNC Basketball: Secret scrimmage report from Villanova

The UNC Basketball program played in a secret scrimmage at Villanova on Saturday afternoon and here is what you need to know about it

While most of us watched the North Carolina Tar Heels Football team drop another heartbreaker against Syracuse on Saturday, the basketball program was in Pennsylvania for their secret scrimmage against the Villanova Wildcats.

It was just a few weeks ago that the secret scrimmage game was announced as UNC’s opponent was finally revealed and on Saturday we finally got a report of what happened.

The defending national champions hosted the Tar Heels in the controlled scrimmage at Finneran Pavilion, playing two 20-minute halves on Saturday with additional segments. Villanova won the scrimmage 89-79, outscoring UNC 41-36 in the first half and then 48-43 in the second half.

Following the first 20-minute segment, the two teams played a 10-minute segment where only zone defense was run. The Tar Heels outscored the Wildcats 14-13 in that segment. UNC’s reserves also won a 5-minute segment 14-5.

Senior Cam Johnson led the Tar Heels with 19 points in the game, followed by freshman Coby White’s 17 and fellow senior Luke Maye’s had 16.

Freshman Nassir Little had 15 points in the game and hit a free throw in the final seconds to tie an additional 10-minute segment between the two teams at 25.

For the Tar Heels, this was a good early measuring stick to see where they stand going into the season against a talented team like Villanova.

Following the game, head coach Roy Williams spoke on what he learned about his team:

"“The scrimmage helped us a great deal,” says UNC head coach Roy Williams. “It showed us early on that Villanova’s talent, experience and toughness was much better than ours because they were so much more active. As the game went along we got a little bit better but it was a slap in the face for us. Hopefully we will bounce back and be the kind of team that I think we can be."

Villanova senior Phil Booth led all scorers with 41 points, playing in the two 20-minute halves and the additional 10-minute segment. He drained nine three-pointers on the day.

The Tar Heels will play another scrimmage game that will be open to the public on November 2nd when they host Mount Olive.

UNC will open up the 2018-19 regular season on the road playing at Wofford on November 6th.

For more on the UNC Basketball program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.