Shorthanded Tar Heels fall to No. 11 Louisville on the road for 7th loss in a row
For 16 minutes, North Carolina kept the score close with Louisville.
The Tar Heels trailed the 11th-ranked Cardinals 25-21 with about four minutes remaining in the first half. But there are 40 minutes in a game, and the Tar Heels, who were down two key players on Saturday, just couldn’t keep up.
ACC Player of the Year candidate Jordan Nwora was a load on offense, and Louisville (23-5, 14-3 ACC), which has the ACC’s best record, dominated the shorthanded Tar Heels 72-55 at the KFC Yum! Center.
“It wasn’t very pretty and we’ve got to play better,” UNC coach Roy Williams said after the game.
Freshman guard Cole Anthony finished with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds.
The Tar Heels were without junior forward Garrison Brooks and graduate senior Justin Pierce. Pierce sprained his ankle in Thursday’s practice. Brooks, who is UNC’s second-leading scorer with 15.2 points per game and 8.5 rebounds, came down with an illness early Saturday morning.
Because the Tar Heels were down two key rotational players, other players who hadn’t played much, had to step up. They kept it close initially, but Louisville’s depth proved to be the difference.
That and Nwora.
Nwora, who is second in the ACC in points per game, was everywhere, and the Tar Heels did not have an answer for him. He scored in the paint, cleaned up the offensive glass, and scored from 3. The 6-8, 225-pound junior finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Louisville’s Malik Williams finished with 17 points.
UNC (10-17, 3-13) has now lost seven consecutive games and remains in last place in the conference.
The Tar Heels’ 17 losses is tied for the second-most in school history. UNC lost 17 games during the 2009-10 season and 20 in 2001-02.
Louisville entered Saturday’s game having lost two of its last three games. But whatever issues the Cardinals were working through during that stretch, consider them fixed.
The Cardinals led the Tar Heels by as many as 24 points in the second half.
Personal foul
Without Brooks, UNC had to play its best game to have a chance to beat Louisville. It didn’t. The Tar Heels committed 17 turnovers.
“Eighteen points off turnovers for us and to have 17 turnovers in a relatively low possession game is not what we want,” Williams said.
And one
After trailing by as many as 24, the Tar Heels managed to cut the lead to 14 with three minutes left. However, that was the closest they got.
ICYMI
Pierce and Brooks became the eighth and ninth Tar Heels to miss at least one game this season with an injury. Christian Keeling and Armando Bacot are the only key rotational players who have played every game this season.
Because of their absences, the Tar Heels went with their ninth different starting lineup in Armando Bacot, Leaky Black, Brandon Robinson, Keeling and Anthony.
Making sense of the numbers
85: Nine different players have missed 85 games this season due to injuries.
38-29: The Cardinals’ rebounding advantage. The Tar Heels were dominated on the boards without Brooks.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
