UNC Basketball: Tar Heels resemble dumpster fire in loss to Wildcats

Tar Heels play poorly from start to finish, fall to Wildcats in CBS Sports Classic

Well, that was ugly.

The eight-point margin that Kentucky beat North Carolina by at the CBS Sports Classic wasn’t indicative of how bad the Tar Heels truly played on Saturday night.

It wasn’t just the 17 turnovers they committed. It wasn’t just the fact that they got outrebounded by 10, and only hauled in five offensive boards. Their 27-for-64 shooting performance certainly didn’t help matters any, and they could’ve managed a couple more made free throws, but that’s not what kept them from walking out of the United Center with a win.

Their overall sloppy play and inability to put together multiple productive offensive possessions in a row did, however, have a major impact on the game. Let’s give credit where credit is due, though, and not forget to mention the plethora of defensive lapses that gave the Wildcats open shots and easy backdoor cuts to the goal. Ultimately, it was a slew of careless mishaps and mental mistakes that kept the Tar Heels trailing the Wildcats from start to finish.

Cameron Johnson led the Tar Heels in scoring with 17, but was curiously out of the lineup in some of the more crucial parts of the game; like when the Kentucky lead was down to just six points late in the game, and North Carolina had an opportunity to get within three. It seems particularly odd considering he hit six of his 12 shots, and 2-of-5 from three-point range. That, and, he’s the Tar Heels’ best shooter this season by a large margin.

When Luke Maye had the ball in his hands on the offensive side of the court, good things happened for the most part. He scored 16 points on 50 percent shooting and knocked down 3-of-5 from long-range. It was on the defensive side of the ball that Maye struggled, giving up size to both Reid Travis and P.J. Washington, and watching them take advantage all game long.

The UNC back court couldn’t buy a bucket, as Coby White and Kenny Williams combined to hit just 7-of-21 shots from the floor and 2-of-6 from deep. White turned the ball over three times — two of which rolled off his own foot and out-of-bounds — and Williams missed consecutive free throws at one point in the second half.

The UNC bench provided almost no help with the exception of Seventh Woods. Most of his seven points came late in the game, while the rest of the Tar Heels’ reserves combined for just six points on 3-of-12 shooting.

Freshman guard Keldon Johnson led the Wildcats with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and 4-of-7 from three-point range. Travis and Washington scored 20 and 11 points, respectively, while the latter missed a triple-double by just one rebound and two assists. Tyler Herro didn’t shoot particularly well, but added 15 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Wildcats, who moved to 9-2 on the season.

The No. 9 Tar Heels fall to 8-3 after the loss, which will surely knock them out of the top-10 when the new Associated Press poll is released on Monday. The Tar Heels are off for a week before returning home to play Davidson on December 29th.