UNC Basketball survives against Gardner-Webb

It wasn’t their best performance by any means, but the UNC basketball program was able to survive against Gardner-Webb on Tuesday night.

Coming into Tuesday night’s contest, it appeared as if it was the perfect opportunity for the UNC basketball program to put together a complete performance against an opponent that they should easily take care of.

Well… that wasn’t the case.

Hubert Davis’ team captured their third victory of the season, but the game was a lot closer than everyone expected. The Tar Heels had opportunities to pull away but didn’t as they ended up defeating the Runnin’ Bulldogs 72-66.

The Tar Heels made just 9 of their 31 shots from the floor in the first half, including a disappointing 4-13 from three-point land. Fortunately, Pete Nance came to play, as he recorded 16 of the team’s 26 first-half points.

Over the first 20 minutes of action, Caleb Love, RJ Davis and Armando Bacot combined for 10 points while making just four of 19 shot attempts. If it wasn’t for Nance’s impressive half, the Tar Heels may have found themselves in deep trouble heading into the final half of play.

North Carolina did step it up a bit in the second half, but couldn’t find the consistently to put this game out of reach. Give credit to Gardner-Webb: they didn’t back down and certainly didn’t give in, as they seemed to have had a response every time the Tar Heels did something productive offensively.

Love had a strong second half, as he finished with a team-high 20 points. Plagued by second-half foul trouble, Nance finished with 18 points and five rebounds, as this was his best performance so far on the early season.

Davis recorded his second career double-double, as he scored 14 points while leading the Tar Heels with 10 rebounds. Bacot finished just a rebound shy of a double-double, as he still looks to become the third Tar Heel ever to record 50+ double-doubles in his career.

North Carolina came in as 21.5 point favorites, but did not look like the No.1 ranked team in the country. Some of the same issues we saw in the team’s first two games happened once again, including a lackluster first-half performance from the big three.

The bench did not provide much, as they accounted for just three points, all courtesy of Seth Trimble. Of course, the trio of Tyler Nickel, D’Marco Dunn and Dontrez Styles only accounted for three shots in this one, but over the course of the season, the bench unit will have to provide more for the Tar Heels.

It’s early in the season, but it’s still a bit concerning to see some of the struggles that the UNC basketball program has faced. Of course, you chalk this one up as a learning lesson, as you’ll definitely take the victory and look to learn from it moving forward.

Follow us @KeepingItHeel on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of UNC basketball news, views, and updates.