Heels dominate inside, tame the Wildcats 90-72

Kennedy Meeks scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, in Charlotte Saturday afternoon, as he dominated the paint to lead the #6 North Carolina Tar Heels to its first road win of the season over the Davidson Wildcats, 90-72.  Justin Jackson netted 18 points in another impressive showing for the Carolina frontcourt.  Marcus Paige and J.P. Tokoto also poured in double digit scoring performances with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Carolina (3-0, 0-0 ACC) had seven players score seven or more points in an all-around game that was led by the big man Meeks.  His ability to seal off the defenders downlow enabled the Sophomore Charlotte, NC native to feast on layup after layup.  The Heels kept going to the post for Meeks and Brice Johnson even when Davidson was staying in the game early with its hot outside shooting.  The Wildcats (2-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10) hung tough in the first half behind the shooting prowess of Peyton Aldridge.  Aldridge was well on his way to a game-high 25 points as he began to nail 3's when the Carolina defense was having trouble fighting through the double screens.  Davidson pulled to within two points 27-25 with 6:45 to go in the first half, but it was all Carolina from there. By the next official timeout, the Heels went on an 11-0 run and had a 38-25 advantage and never relinquished its double-digit lead.

Besides Aldridge and his six 3-pointers, the Heels did a fantastic job guarding the perimeter and the 3-point misses usually ended up as a score for UNC.  Going into the game, Carolina knew it needed to contain Davidson's outside shooting accuracy, and that is exactly what the Heels did.  Davidson was shooting 25-50 (50%) from beyond the arc entering the game; however, Carolina's defense affected many shooters and the Wildcats were only able to make 11 of 36 attempts Saturday (30.6%).

Almost half of Davidson's field goal attempts were 3's and, since it was not connecting on many, the Tar Heels went strong to the glass and collected a whopping 51 rebounds.  Meeks paced the Heels with 12 boards, but Johnson (who dealt with foul trouble all second half long) and J.P. Tokoto both pulled down 7 boards apiece in the Heels overpowering of the Wildcats.

The overwhelming talent on the inside for the Heels was the story to this one as Davidson had no real solution to slow down the beasts in Carolina Blue. Tyler Kalinoski scored 12 and Jake Belford added 10 for the Wildcats, but the superstar from last year's game in Chapel Hill, Brian Sullivan, only managed 4 points on 2 of 10 shooting as the Tar Heels defense hawked him all game long.

And, just when you thought there could not be any more excitement on the court...Jackson lobs an alley-oop pass to Tokoto on the fast-break late in the game...and Tokoto rises sky-high, catches the ball with his right-hand and slams it down for a monstrous SportsCenter Top 10 dunk..  A must-see on the highlight reel tonight for all Tar Heels fans.  Once the video is made available, I will post it.  It is that awesome!

The Tar Heels will be boarding a plane soon to head to the Bahamas to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament that will consist of some major non-conference competition.  Carolina's first game in the tournament will come Wednesday at 12pm EST against the Butler Bulldogs.  The schedule beefs up for sure beginning this week, but over the first three games of the season the Tar Heels have shown that its size and depth (along with an improved defense) will serve as a major challenge for any opponent.  If the Heels can turn around its free-throw shooting (only 64.3% versus Davidson) and find a consistent outside threat besides Paige, the team will become even more of an obstacle to overcome heading into the Holidays and beyond.

Next Game:     #6 North Carolina Tar Heels (3-0, 0-0 ACC) vs Butler Bulldogs (3-0, 0-0 Big East)
Date & Time:  Wednesday November 26, 2014 @ 12:00pm EST
Location:          Imperial Arena - Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas
TV/Radio:        ESPN2/Tar Heel Sports Network