No. 18 UNC Tar Heels come up short on defensive end in loss to No. 6 Purdue
.JPG "Purdue’s Sasha Stefanovic dribbles the ball as North Carolina’s Caleb Love, back, defends in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021.")
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis pumped his fist as his sideline pacing picked up during the 18th-ranked Tar Heels’ 93-84 loss to No. 6 Purdue on Saturday.
UNC forward Dawson Garcia had just confronted Purdue’s 7-foot-4 behemoth Zach Edey in the post and forced him to miss a jump hook.
That got Davis excited. He removed his glasses. He put them back on. Then he yelled out to his team, “You got to be physical.”
Davis wanted to see more fight defensively after the Heels (3-1) found themselves on the receiving end of too many blows from the Boilermakers in the Hall of Fame Tipoff at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
“I knew it was gonna be a fight the whole game,” Garcia said. “We got punched in the mouth, but we came right back.”
Carolina just didn’t have enough to counter second-leading scorer Armando Bacot being limited due to foul trouble. Bacot played just under four minutes in the second half and about 17 minutes total in the game before fouling out with two points and five rebounds.
Purdue post players could sense they were too much to handle with Bacot ineffective.
“It was just about who was going to be tougher, who was going to be more physical,” Purdue forward Trevion Williams said. “A lot of times guys try not to foul and our coaches tell us to go at those dudes. Those guys (Bacot, Garcia) were both in foul trouble from guarding Zach; I knew when I came in I had to be aggressive.”
Williams muscled his way to 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field in just 13 minutes off the bench. Edey only scored nine points, but UNC post players racked up fouls trying to defend him in the paint, too. Of the 20 fouls committed by UNC, nine occurred while trying to defend Williams and Edey.
“It was a physical game and you know, like the coaches told us coming in, we’re gonna have to guard the action before it even happens,” said Garcia, who also fouled out. “We had to be ready for any duck-ins, and they got us sometimes, but we just got to continue to learn from that.”
What Garcia and Carolina learned is that offensively, they can score against any opponent. Purdue entered the game ranked 17th nationally in adjusted defense, according to KenPom.com, and the Heels scored more than 80 points for the fourth time this season.
Garcia posted the Heels’ seventh 20-point game this season — they had seven total all of last season — with his season-high 26 points. Garcia made his first eight attempts from the floor and finished 10 for 13 from the field.
UNC guard R.J. Davis again provided a second-half spark as he did in the Heels’ win over Brown. Davis scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half.
“I’m just trying to bring energy and be that spark for my team,” Davis said. “The second half we wanted to come out with energy and toughness. That was the main thing, and I think we saw a lot of grit and effort.”
But they also saw that defense needs some work.
Purdue shot 64 percent from the field in the second half, getting pretty much every shot it wanted. The Heels allowed the Boilermakers to score 26 of 42 points in the paint in the second half.
The Heels sorely missed senior Leaky Black on defense. Black sat out the game due to a non-COVID-19 related illness. His availability for Sunday’s consolation game against No. 17 Tennessee is unknown.
Black is the team’s best perimeter defender, and Carolina watched almost helplessly as Purdue guards Sasha Stefanovic scored a team-high 23 points and Jaden Ivey added 22.
The Boilermakers committed just two turnovers in the second half. Carolina ranks 355th out of 358 NCAA Division I teams in defensive turnover percentage, according to KenPom.com.
“A lot of people across the country have players and their offense is better than their defense right now,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We’re one of those teams. We’re not a very good defensive team right now. North Carolina is not a very good defensive team. We’re both good offensive teams.”
That explains how Carolina rallied from down 10 points in the first half to take a 65-64 lead with 9:16 left in the game. But ultimately couldn’t get enough stops to close out a win.
Hubert Davis said as disappointed he was in making his first speech to the team after a loss as head coach, he was proud of how they competed against a top-ranked team.
“Their toughness, their will and their want to in the second half, I thought was really good,” Davis said. “It wasn’t good enough, but I was proud of that. And I told them that this is a great opportunity for us to learn.”