UNC defeats Oklahoma in what Sooner coach Porter Moser called a ‘suffocating’ performance
No. 11 North Carolina believes it played some of its best defense of the season on Wednesday night.
No. 7 Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser concurred, acknowledging the Heels’ excellence.
“You gotta give credit to Carolina. Their defense I thought tonight was terrific,” Moser said after UNC’s 81-69 win over the Sooners. “They were suffocating. They were guarding the dribbler. They were protecting the rim.”
That’s exactly what the Heels (8-3) wanted to accomplish in its top 25 matchup against the Sooners (10-1) in the Jumpman Invitational at Spectrum Center.
They held OU to just 28 first-half points and 7-for-23 from 3-point range. OU’s 69 total points were some of the fewest by an opposing team this season against UNC, as well.
UNC head coach Hubert Davis and the players all felt like its previous days of practices were some of the best they’ve had, especially on the defensive end. Those don’t always translate into a victory, but they did on Wednesday.
It felt good to know Carolina could put together a full game of strong defense, when it often struggled to maintain the pressure throughout.
“Going into this game we wanted to play defense for 40 minutes, and I think that was evident through the steals,” said UNC senior RJ Davis. “We had guys in the gaps; guys in the right positions. Overall, we were making the defensive plays that needed to be made, especially in crunch crucial times.”
Carolina forced a season-high 18 turnovers, collected a season-high 10 steals and scored 24 points off those turnovers.
Additionally, the Tar Heels focused on defending the paint, which is where the Sooners like to score. They gave up 30, but that was Oklahoma’s lowest offensive output inside all season.
Basically, UNC looked like a postseason team for most of the game.
“Going into this game, we knew it was a must win, an undefeated team. It was one of those big wins we needed to get into the tournament,” UNC graduate student Armando Bacot said. “We definitely came into this game with a sense of urgency.”
On an individual basis, freshman Zayden High was an unexpected contributor, as well. His efforts don’t show up on paper, but the advanced analytics – and the eye test – showed excellent effort. High was tied with grad student Cormac Ryan for stop percentage (70.1), which estimates the rate of possessions where the opposing team doesn’t score. Junior Harrison Ingram was the only player higher (84.1).
Davis also received props from Moser, who said “he is such a great offensive player, but I don’t know if he gets enough credit defensively.”
The senior finished with 10.5 net points, according to the advanced analytics, scoring more than opponents produced when he defended them.
There’s still stuff to work on – like getting back to leading the rebounds – but it was a positive step for the Tar Heels as they take a break before ACC play.
“I didn’t want to go into Christmas break with the L and with a bad mood, but I also didn’t want to lose three in a row, especially on the home court,” RJ Davis said. “Oklahoma is a great team. They played a great game, but we knew we had to do. We executed the game plan that the coaching staff put out in front of us.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
