Instant Analysis: UNC Cruises Past NC Central, Improves to 4-0

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina picked up its fourth straight victory on Friday night, with Caleb Wilson taking care of most of the heavy lifting.

The 18th-ranked Tar Heels clobbered NC Central 97-53 at the Smith Center, behind the freshman Wilson’s double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds.

UNC improved to 4-0 on the new college basketball season with relative ease, while the visiting Eagles struggled to 24.2-percent shooting from the field. The Tar Heels have secured non-conference victories against teams from the Atlantic Sun, Big 12, Big South and now the MEAC. Carolina has won 51 straight non-conference games against in-state opponents.

Luka Bogavac scored 13 points, Henri Veesaar added 12 points and 11 rebounds and Zayden High chipped in a career-best 11 points off the bench for UNC, which played its second game without senior leader Seth Trimble, who’s out due to a broken left arm. UNC piled up 14 blocked shots on this night, with the 7-footer Veesaar and the 6-10 Wilson rejecting five and four shots, respectively.

Bogavac swished a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer during the opening minute of the second half — a zone buster with NC Central scrambling on defense and trapping — that moved the Tar Heels ahead 42-24. Later, Jarin Stevenson delivered on both ends. He stuffed the driving attempt of NC Central’s Ryan Archey, and hustled after swatting the blocked shot to deposit a running layup in transition, as Carolina’s lead grew to 67-35 and Eagles coach LeVelle Moton burned another timeout.

Ramondo Battle II’s 14 points and Gage Lattimore’s 12 points topped NC Central (1-4), which suffered its fourth loss on the road here on the young season. Last week, the Eagles fell by lopsided margins at NC State (114-56) and Virginia (81-62). The lefty Lattimore arrived Friday night coming off a 38-point outburst in the Eagles’ defeat of Division II Bluefield State two nights earlier. But the Tar Heels held him to just 4-for-19 shooting from the field here.

Tar Heels Find Run Late in First Half

Carolina led 39-24 by halftime, after putting together a 10-0 run during the last three minutes of the first half. The freshman Wilson already had collected 17 points and nine rebounds by that juncture, three nights after first-half foul trouble neutralized his production early on against Radford.

NC Central shot just 28.1 percent from the field during the first half (9-for-32), but the visiting Eagles were within 29-23 of the Tar Heels’ lead due to some UNC carelessness. On back-to-back possessions, Wilson sent passes into traffic to Jarin Stevenson (who fumbled it away) and Veesaar (who was double-teamed) that resulted in turnovers.

UNC registered 12 assists on 14 made buckets in the first half, but coughed up 10 turnovers in the process.

Battle’s 12 points had accounted for half of NC Central’s scoring total by halftime. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels had done a commendable defensive job on the Eagles’ top weapons, Lattimore (three points, 1-for-8 from the field in the first half) and big man Khouri Carvey (four points, 2-for-6 from the field in the first half). Lattimore and Carvey entered Friday night combining to average more than 40 points per game.

Next on the Schedule

Carolina completes its five-game homestand to begin the new season on Tuesday night, when Navy visits the Smith Center. The Midshipmen of the Patriot League blasted Washington College, a Division III program out of Maryland, earlier Friday night to improve their record to 2-2.

Navy leads UNC 14-6 in the all-time series, with all but two of the matchups played before 1954. Navy and UNC have met only once across the last 67 seasons, and the Tar Heels, then coached by Bill Guthridge, rolled 88-52 on that afternoon in their 1998 NCAA Tournament opener. The Navy game becomes Carolina’s final home date before squaring off against St. Bonaventure (on Nov. 25) and Michigan State (on Thanksgiving Day) in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida.

This season marks the first time UNC has opened with five consecutive home assignments since 1918-19. Back then, that stretch included two matchups against the Durham YMCA, and one game apiece against Guilford, Wake Forest and Elon.