Tar Heels 97, Evansville 48
Focused Heels take care of business
A focused North Carolina team started a nine-game home streak in fashion with an early dismissal of Evansville en route to a 97-48 victory. (12/06) Click here for a photo gallery.
The Tar Heels built a double-digit lead in the first five minutes which were highlighted by a pair of steals and buckets by Dexter Strickland, including an open court dunk.
A Harrison Barnes jumper with 5:41 left in the first half gave the Heels their first 20-point margin at 37-17. Less than five minutes later, Barnes completed a Carolina 16-2 run with a monster dunk to give the Heels their first 30-point margin of the night at 49-19.
Ahead 52-22 at the half, the Tar Heels started the second half on a 10-0 run to go up by 40. With the starters long gone, the subs worked the margin up to 51 at 89-38 on a jumper by seldom-used freshman Jackson Simmons.
"Well it was a good game for us, but we are more blessed with bigger, quicker players and we should win the game but I thought our kids had great focus," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "If we had that kind of focus for 40 minutes a couple of other times this year, it would have helped us out a great deal, but I thought we did some good things tonight."
Despite the fact that no player played more than 25 minutes, five Tar Heels scored in double figures. Barnes led the way with 17 points but next was Reggie Bullock off the bench with 15. John Henson tallied 13 while Tyler Zeller got 12. Freshman James McAdoo scored 10 points.
North Carolina, now 7-2, hosts Long Beach State Saturday.
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