UNC 102, BOSTON COLLEGE 96 (OT)
JANUARY 25, 2025
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

UNC Scoring Leader: RJ Davis 22
UNC Rebound Leader: Seth Trimble 12
UNC Assist Leader: Davis 5
Team Records: UNC 13-8, 6-3 ACC, Boston College 9-11, 1-8 ACC

• Carolina is 1-1 this season in overtime games and 69-63 all-time in OT games.
• This was the ninth time UNC scored 100 or more points in an overtime game and the first time since a 4OT loss to Alabama on 11/27/2022.
• Carolina is 11-10 in OT games in the Smith Center, winning in OT in the Smith Center for the first time since beating Syracuse on 2/28/2022.
• Jalen Washington tied his career scoring high with 18 points (also vs. American this season). Carolina is 4-0 this season and 8-1 in his career when he scores in double figures.
• Washington scored 12 first-half points. His previous high point total for a half this season was 10 in the second vs. American. He tied his career best for points in a half – also 12 in the first half against Charleston Southern on12/29/2023 and first half at Virginia on 1/10/2023).
• Washington tied his career high with seven field goals (also vs. American).
• Seth Trimble had his second career double-double with 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. He grabbed a career-high and game-high five offensive rebounds.

• RJ Davis led UNC with 22 points and had five assists, five rebounds and zero turnovers.
• Carolina is 16-2 over the last five seasons when Davis has at least 20 points and five assists.
• It was Davis’ 42nd career 20-point game (UNC 32-10).
• Carolina scored a season-high 58 points in the paint (which does include free throws).
• Carolina shot 55.6% from the floor, its third-best percentage this season (59.0% vs. American and 57.1% vs. Campbell).
• Carolina is 7-1 this season when it shoots 50% from the floor.

• Carolina was 26 for 33 from the free throw line. The 26 made free throws were the most since making 27 against Dayton.
• Carolina is 5-2 this season when it makes 20 or more free throws.
• The teams combined for 91 first-half points, which equaled the most in any game this season with Kansas on November 8 (the Jayhawks led 53-38).
• Carolina shot 58.1% in the first half, its highest percentage in a first half this season, and its highest since 2/26/2022, when it shot 60% in the first half vs. NC State.
• Carolina led 46-45 at half. It was the third straight game UNC led by one or two points at the half.
• Carolina has led at halftime in eight of its nine ACC games.
• Drake Powell did not start for the first time since Maui but was a team-best plus 13 and forced a key five-second call on a baseline out of bounds play that led to Carolina tying the game at the end of regulation.
• Ven-Allen Lubin started for the fifth time and first game since UCLA.
• The lineup of Cadeau-Davis-Jackson-Trimble-Lubin started for the first time this season.

UNC-Boston College
• Carolina improved to 24-6 overall vs. Boston College, including 22-5 against the Eagles in ACC play. Carolina is 9-3 against Boston College in the Smith Center.
• This was the first the teams played an overtime game.
• BC made 14 of 24 three-pointers. The Eagles’ percentage (.583) was the sixth highest by an opponent in Smith Center history and the best since Pitt shot 58.8% in beating Carolina on 2/16/2022.
• The Eagles’ 14 three-pointers tied the most by an opponent this season (also Dayton).
• BC had 20 assists, most against Carolina this season.

Next Game: at Pitt, January 28, 9 p.m., ESPN

...and I'm just glad I didn't hafta write this about a loss.

That wasn't for lack of trying, it would seem --- good grief. Granted, this BC team couldn't shoot that way from 3 if you left them in a gym by themselves --- trouble is though, for much of the game (and all of the first half) it looked like we had done exactly that. So, let's start right there:

- Just awful defensive effort and brains after the first possession. Bad footwork, non-angled forces, late (or no) help, getting stuck too far from shooters, etc etc. Just yikes. TBH, the only guy who had a positive go on that end in the 1st half was Eliot.

- Good news was that eventually --- a long time coming, BTW --- it was defense that salvaged a bad loss. Drake terrorizing inbounders actually gave us a chance to pull this stinker out in regulation. And in fairness, down the stretch we showed flashes of better team D and individual efforts. Seth, in particular, picked it up in the 2nd with deflections and/or denies, but DAMN,,,, can we not come up with the loose balls we caused?

- Speaking of Seth, he was putting that vertical to use --- TUFF bucket on that last inbound play, and other finishes thru HARD contact. Also, he went to war on the glass. I've long since given up on relying on any stats from our home boxscores so I haven't bothered to look yet, but I know he had a dadgummed double-rebound effort, and from a 6'3 guy that's pretty impressive. And on that last BC drive in OT (where we executed Help correctly), I think he may have gotten a piece of that shot before the Lubin block.

- As hard as the game was to stomach for much of it, there were a couple of encouraging things, as well as "growth" moments. Not mitigating that he had a stinker on defense, RJ looked like RJ on offense, knocking down the shots we need. Also, after alllowing BC to get away with mayhem in the 1st half, the zebras finally got us to the FT line in the 2nd, and RJ helped make up for some of our early misses by being perfect from the line. He also did his best job of the year running our offense when EC was out.

- Another good sign was Ian showing a lot of maturity in the 2nd half. After being helter-skelter early, he seemed to take a deep breath and showed patience. There were a couple of key possessions in which he eschewed the tendency to force, and took his time to set up and create a better shot for himself. Young fella has to understand that he is showing up on scouting reports these days. A lot of fans don't understand how big scouting is at the collegiate level (especially in conference), and sometimes neither do Freshmen, so seeing growth in his reaction and adjustment is a good thing. Also good to see Drake shake off a stinker at Wake and knock down a key 3 and absolutely BRING it on D in the 2nd half. Granted, I and half of the state was yelling at him to take that shot on the block instead of overpassing, but he later made the dagger dime from the FT line to Lubin at the end.

- Speaking of the "end", that almost came in regulation due to the aforementioned defensive flurry and a play drawn up with 1.4 seconds left that got RJ an AMAZING look. I used to have one similar that got the flair pass out to the wing, but that pitch-back wrinkle with the built-in screen was SWEET. Dunno if that was Jeff's or Hubert's, but kudos!

- So... I just glanced over to goheels and I'm VERY relieved for JWash --- damn, that looked scary, like ACL-scary, but apparently no damage. Speaking of Wash, BC's whole approach was dribble-drive bully-ball that too often ended up with their rumblin-bumblin-stumblin Bigs barging their way to the rim. Now granted, they hooked more than a PBA bowler, but that was a tough matchup. Lubin either fouled or got stuck in the paint leaving open shooters, and Wash was getting bulled. Not meaning to dog either one of our guys --- they both ended up contributing mightily (now looking at the goheels box, Wash had 18 and 6 w/3 big dimes) --- but I think there were more ops to go offense-defense with Claude, who is built for banging with guys like BC's, and did so effectively whilst he was in.

- Finally, speaking of the boxscore, I know damn well just from the marks on my notes we had more than 16 Assists (hell, Eliot had 5 just on a 2-minute highlight reel I watched). My point is, unlike some earlier games, BALL-MOVEMENT wasn't an issue. We generally got good looks and the rock seldom got "stuck", and as a result, we shot better than 55% (and an at least respectable 37.5% from 3) -- big contrast to Tuesday. And that's with some frustrating close-in misses. Also, even with our stat-guy's propensity for undercounting dimes and steals and misassigning TOs notwithstanding, one stat that does stand out is REBOUNDING. It's a quiet stat today, since with all the shooting going on there weren't as many to be had, BUT, we manned up and outboarded em by 13 (!), and only allowed 6 offensive (and some of those were loose balls). So yeah, that mattered. Seth led the way, but all our guys were sticking their noses into a VERY physical fray.

Anyway, phew!... enough with the cardiac-kid act already. Hopefully some of the positives I mentioned will keep moving forward so we can learn to BUILD a lead --- not just get one. Got a big week coming up, and I hafta say I liked our guys body-language much better today, so there's that...