To me it was Justin Jackson refusing to let go of that jump ball.
That is the attitude I hope this team continues to display.
That is the attitude I hope this team continues to display.
PLAY OF THE GAME
- Thread starter montana_heel
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I'll go with the whole game. It was almost flawless.
They played more determined than ever.
They played more determined than ever.
There were many...... One possession we miss back to back threes but Pinson out-battles the Irish for the board and the putback. Paige nails 2 3s close together in our 18-0 run to end the 1st half. We grab ND's missed FT and Pinson sends a missile to Berry who sticks another trey to end the run and the half. Jackson misses a duckie but outworks ND for the rebound and putback. Nate with solid D and some nice drives while Berry caught his breath. Hicks being a beast on both ends of the court, and a tip of the hat to the refs who did NOT utterly roll us in this game! And on and on and on......... GREAT GAME!!
Getting up in the other teams ass and not letting the opposition be the aggressor is what was so pleasing tonight. Offensively UNC was ok but physically/defensively they were "all up in that ass"!
ND missing that shot before halftime, followed by Berry's 3 at the buzzer was the DAGGER! If they trimmed it to 13, 14 by half maybe they still feel like they could turn it around, but down 19.... They were done. Plus we started with a 6-0 run in the second half. A 24 point run against a quality team is unbelievably awesome.
The last 60 minutes of basketball has been the best stretch of defense and hustle we've shown all year. Everyone knows we're a very good offensive team, top 10 in scoring and offensive efficiency all year. And that's with being ranked 301st out of 346 teams in 3 point percentage. If we can shoot a mere 33% from long distance and play that kind of defense, we'll be a hard out.
UVA is a team that will beat us if we don't play our very best. They dictate a slower tempo and are ranked 5th nationally in offensive efficiency. And they play tough defense. They're a very well coached, disciplined team of seniors. They'll probably be one of my FF picks.
Now let's win the conference tonight.
A couple key players in my mind
1) The Marcus Paige shake and bake 3. Puts the ND guy on roller skates and steps back to bury his 2nd 3 early in the game. You could almost see the confidence stream back into his game as he ran back down the court.
2) The Berry 3 from the white truck to close the half pretty much ended the game. I imagine it was a pretty deflated Irish locker room after that. The game obviously wasn't over, but as you look back at how the 2nd half continued to go our way, hindsight tells you the game was over as Berry buried that shot.
1) The Marcus Paige shake and bake 3. Puts the ND guy on roller skates and steps back to bury his 2nd 3 early in the game. You could almost see the confidence stream back into his game as he ran back down the court.
2) The Berry 3 from the white truck to close the half pretty much ended the game. I imagine it was a pretty deflated Irish locker room after that. The game obviously wasn't over, but as you look back at how the 2nd half continued to go our way, hindsight tells you the game was over as Berry buried that shot.
I think the Berry 3 at the end of the half was like a nail in the coffin and helped carry us into the second half. The intensity that we showed last night was exemplified by the held ball with Justin Jackson. We need that junkyard dog mentality and we fought hard for every 50-50 ball. If we play like that the rest of the year and shoot a respectable percentage especially from beyond the arc then we will be extremely difficult to beat.
A play that was huge at the time was the alley-oop from Theo to Brice. Big play when the game was still tight. It got kind of lost once we really went on the run, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. As pointed out, the Marcus ankle-breaker was huge, the Berry 3 at the end of the half, Theo's steal and layup, really everything in the run was tremendous. Would love to see something like that tonight too
Wasn't a play, but I especially loved Berry smacking the ball out of Jackson's hands after the whistle blew. It wasn't anything nasty or egregious, but it just sort of said, "Hey dude, I'm going to be all up in your skin tonight so you better get ready." Got Jackson a little flustered and then Berry runs down on the next play and, as pointed out, drains that 3 at the halftime buzzer. I told my buddies right then, look at the way NDs body language seems after that, it's over!
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