The defensive effort was on display on Wednesday night at the Dean Smith Center.
For the Tar Heels, one of the key focal points was to slow down Andrej Stojakovic, the ACC's leading scorer. One of the top scoring threats in the country, Stojakovic has essentially had his way with every opponent he's faced this season, but North Carolina made sure that wasn't the case.
Cal’s Andrej Stojakovic entered the game leading the ACC in scoring in conference play (24.2 ppg).
— Carolina Basketball Stats & Info (@UNCMBBStats) January 16, 2025
UNC held him to six points on 3 of 13 shooting, including 0 of 5 from three.
The transfer guard scored just six points (18 points lower than his average prior in ACC play), knocking down just three of his 13 shot attempts from the floor. Seth Trimble, who has earned the reputation as an elite defender, handled the assignment for the most part, but Hubert Davis threw some different looks at Stojakovic, including having Drake Powell spend some time shadowing him as well.
""Just trying to win our individual one-on-one matchups. He's one of the best players in the country. He's gifted, he can score, and a three-level scorer (who) does a great job of getting fouled, getting to the free throw line. He has really, really good size for a wing player and is athletic. I thought we did a good job when he was trying to post us up. We doubled, got the ball out of his hands. We didn't give him any open looks, really, from 3, and we defended him without fouling. And then on the offensive end, with our movement and in our plays we went at him. And I thought everyone as a team did a really good job against one of the better players in the country.""Hubert Davis
This strong defensive effort hasn't been limited to just Wednesday night. Since January 2, the UNC basketball program has been one of the best defensive units in the country.
North Carolina's defense is really starting to find its rhythm.
— Isaac Schade (@isaacschade) January 16, 2025
Since January 2nd, Carolina rates No. 3 in defensive efficiency at Torvik 👀. pic.twitter.com/HqZwxogIZg
While it's easy to say that the schedule wasn't as strong as it's been in weeks prior, it shouldn't take away from the fact that the Tar Heels still are putting in the work defensively. Even though some still doubt if they can sustain this success, North Carolina will have plenty of opportunities to prove it as the schedule ramps back up over the next few weeks.