Julie Jacobson - AP
North Carolina's Tyler Zeller, left, and John Henson (31) battle for a rebound against South Carolina's Carlton Geathers and RJ Slawson in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS -- Early in the first half of North Carolina’s 87-62 victory against South Carolina here at the Orleans Arena on Friday night, the Tar Heels played like they wanted Roy Williams to be proud of their defense – like they remembered how Williams had chided their defense earlier this week.
It was after UNC’s 33-point victory against Tennessee State on Tuesday when Williams said the Tar Heels’ defense made him “chew their rear ends out” at halftime. There was no need for that on Friday night – not after top-ranked UNC forced South Carolina into 17 first-half turnovers and made the Gamecocks (2-3) look, at times, overwhelmed during the semifinals of the Las Vegas Invitational.
With the victory, North Carolina (5-0) advanced to play tonight against UNLV (6-0) in the championship game of the invitational. Despite shooting 41 percent, the Running Rebels prevailed in a 66-55 victory against Southern Cal in the first semifinal game. UNLV will be playing tonight a few miles from its campus.
UNC had plenty of crowd support on Friday night, too, what with a few thousand blue-clad fans filling the Orleans Arena. They had reason to cheer, especially early on when the Tar Heels led by as many as 17 during the first half. The Heels led 45-32 at halftime and though the defensive intensity carried them early, it seemed to wane as the first half wore on.
Williams found dissatisfaction in other areas, too.
“At [halftime] I was real discouraged because I didn’t think we’d rebounded well,” said Williams, whose team was outrebounded by 11 during the first half. “I didn’t think we were alert. Somebody said, well, maybe we were looking ahead … but I know if we play [against UNLV] like we played tonight, we are not going to win this game.
“So we have to play better.”
Though UNC generated 17 turnovers in the first half, the Tar Heels didn’t always capitalize on them. And when South Carolina managed to beat UNC’s trapping defense, or get past the Tar Heels’ pressuring man-to-man, the Gamecocks often made the Heels pay.
UNC missed several lay-ups and shot 45.7 percent from the field during the first half. Meanwhile, South Carolina shot 48 percent but attempted 25 shots – 10 less than UNC. The Heels' defense improved in the second half, when it held the Gamecocks to 41.8 percent shooting.
For the second time this season, North Carolina also struggled to effectively rebound - at least for a half. Despite a significant size advantage on the interior – the Gamecocks’ tallest starter, Damontre Harris, is 6-foot-9 and shorter than two of UNC’s frontcourt players – South Carolina managed to out-rebound UNC by 24-13 during the first half.
North Carolina also struggled to put away the Gamecocks, who have lost games this season against the likes of Elon and Tennessee State. The Heels early on appeared headed to an easy victory but South Carolina proved resilient, and stuck around. South Carolina cut UNC’s lead to 10 five minutes into the second half, but UNC responded with a 3-pointer from Harrison Barnes, who then added a dunk 30 seconds later.
That spurt, which came with about 14 minutes to play, put the Tar Heels back up by 15 and South Carolina called a timeout. The Gamecocks cut the deficit back down to 12 on Malik Cooke’s 3-pointer but UNC never allowed South Carolina any closer, and led by 20 with about four minutes to play.
“We didn’t play exceptionally well but give South Carolina credit,” Williams said. “They did some things that were difficult for us to handle and it was not our sharpest by any means but again, you have to give them credit … I was never worried about the outcome of the game. I was concerned about how we played.”
Still, the Tar Heels did provide Williams with some reasons for satisfaction. There was the intense stretch of defense they played during the early part of the game and through most of the second half, when South Carolina shot 41.8 percent.
Barnes led four UNC players in double figures with 21 points. John Henson added 16 and Kendall Marshall, who had been averaging 10.8 assists entering Friday night, finished with 14. It was the third consecutive game that Marshall has finished with at least 14 assists.
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” he said. “I’ve said it before: I do the easy part. I just have to give them the ball. They have to make the shot. And tonight, we did a great job of getting out on the break, getting a lot of easy opportunities early on.”
For the second consecutive game, UNC also received a major lift off the bench. Against Tennessee State earlier this week, sophomore guard Reggie Bullock scored 23 points and made six 3-pointers. On Friday night, freshman P.J. Hairston played his finest game of his young collegiate career.
He finished with 19 points and made 5 of his 7 3-point attempts.
“I got into a rhythm, hit my first two shots,” Hairston said. “And I was like, OK. It’s going to be a good day.”
The most pleasing number to Williams, though, might have been 25. That’s how many turnovers North Carolina forced – a season-high through five games and another indication that his team is improving in the area where he wanted to see improvement the most.
