Acceleration has not been an issue for No. 14 North Carolina, however sustaining its most pace for a complete contest has change into a rising concern.
The Tar Heels (14-2, 2-1 ACC) will look to maintain the pedal down all through the sport once they start a West Coast swing with a gathering towards Stanford on Wednesday.
Stanford (13-4, 2-2) recorded consecutive wins over then-No. 16 Louisville and Virginia Tech earlier than shedding 70-55 to then-No. 23 Virginia on Saturday.
“Good crew,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith stated of Virginia. “You are going to must play rather well to beat them, particularly beat them (at residence). I felt good about the best way we defended and rebounded, however you have to put the ball within the basket.”
The Cardinal face one other powerful matchup towards North Carolina, which rebounded from a loss at SMU to beat Wake Forest 87-84 at residence on Saturday.
The Tar Heels received for the eighth time of their final 9 video games with a wire-to-wire victory over the Demon Deacons. North Carolina improved to 14-2 for the primary time since 2015-16 with the win.
Henri Veesaar had 25 factors and Caleb Wilson added 22 factors and 12 rebounds for the Tar Heels, who led by 15 with 9:50 left earlier than the Demon Deacons went on a 17-3 run.
“That is going to be our progress, for us as a crew,” Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis stated. “It isn’t attending to that stage, however it’s staying at that time. There have been various occasions the place we had been up 12, 15 factors, and in each a type of conditions, we by no means took a step ahead. We took our foot off the fuel pedal on each ends of the ground.”
The sport marked one other instance of North Carolina constructing a giant lead earlier than permitting opponents to rally late in video games.
“Positively some frustration,” Tar Heels guard Seth Trimble stated. “I would not say concern. We all know that it is there, however we let groups make these runs and we’ve got these lapses a little bit bit, and groups simply benefit from it. However I do know that we will make that go away. I’ve little doubt in my thoughts. Some frustration, however no concern.”
The Tar Heels can avenge a 72-71 loss to Stanford in Chapel Hill final season. Stanford escaped with the victory after Jaylen Blakes scored with 1.5 seconds left.
The present Stanford squad is led by freshman guard Ebuka Okorie, who’s averaging 22.1 factors on 43.2% capturing.
Okorie had 31 factors in Wednesday’s win over Virginia Tech earlier than scoring 14 on 5-of-20 capturing towards Virginia.
“(Okorie) is hard to protect,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom stated. “… Definitely, he calls for a double crew at occasions.”
Senior guard Benny Gealer led Stanford with 15 factors towards Virginia and is third on the crew in scoring at 10.8 factors per recreation.
Stanford and North Carolina have each struggled from past the arc this season. The Cardinal are 14th within the league at 33.6% from 3-point vary, whereas the Tar Heels are thirteenth at 33.7%.
–Discipline Degree Media
