Game blog: Heels top Bulldogs 93-72
Nov 23, 2009
9:28 p.m., Game over: I don't think Roy Williams is going to be all that happy about it though. A lot of turnovers again for UNC but they got solid games from Deon Thompson and Ed Davis, as they should when they play these small teams. Tyler Zeller added 16 for the Heels. Great job by GWU not getting blown out in this one. Grayson Flittner scored 32 points and made 9 3-pointers today.
Heels win it 93-72. Carolina has a game against Nevada here on Sunday before the big game against Michigan State on December 1.
9:19 p.m., More Flittner: This guard for GWU is putting on an And1 mix tape tour shooting display. He has 32 points now, 2 shy of his career high. Not bad to set your career high in the Smith Center. What I can't understand is how he is averaging only 7.7 points per game coming into this game. He must not have been trying.
Carolina leads it 83-68 with under four minutes to play. Ed Davis has 15 points and 15 boards. Good game for him. When the bigs have gotten it down low it's been lights out. But a really sloppy second half from Carolina with 10 turnovers. That gives them 15 for the game.
9:09 p.m., Comeback not coming easy: I give credit to the Runnin Bulldogs in trying to keep this a close game. Carolina can't break this one open. Flittner has made 8 of 13 3-pointers for GWU. That's the biggest reason they have hung in it. Funny play just happened where Anton Silver sort of wrapped up John Henson and fouled him. Henson fell backwards on top of Silver. When the play was done Henson was sitting right on Silver's lap. It didn't look like a nice position if you know what I mean. It drew a nice laugh from the fans.
Silver tossed Henson off in frustration.
It's 77-60 UNC with 7:56 to play.
8:58 p.m., Heels by 16: Deon and Ed Davis look like they will both pull down double-doubles tonight. Thompson already has a 20 and 10 game. Davis needs one more board to get it.
Carolina leads 70-54.
8:50 p.m., UNC turns it over a little: The life sort of left the building in the last four minutes. Gardner-Webb is still hanging around. Carolina is turning it over and Flittner hit another 3-pointer to give him 23 points. UNC has turned it over at least four times in the second half.
They still lead by only 13 now 61-48 with 14:11 to go in the game.
8:37 p.m., First half recap: UNC took care of the ball for a change. Let's see if they can finish the game with 10 or less turnovers. They had 5 in the first half, 11 assists and 8 steals too. Deon Thompson led with 16 points and 4 boards and he became the 63rd Heel to score his 1,000th point.
By the way, good form by Carolina's media staff giving us Bojangles for the pre-game meal. I used to be a Bojangles hater, only had it once in my life. But that rice and beans they had was money. Also the biscuits withe a little honey and butter were good too. You gotta, wanna, needa, getta, eata, havea, enojya, lovea, Bojangles! Is that how the saying goes?
8:20 p.m., Deon on a nice list: Thompson scored a basket for his 1,000th career point. He becomes the 63rd player in UNC history to join that list, which is an NCAA record.
GWU's Flittner can really shoot it. The senior is on fire. He's from Indiana that's why he can shoot it so well. He has 20 points at the half to lead all scorers. The Runnin Bulldogs cut it to 12 here with a couple minutes to go but then they couldn't get the ball back to Flittner for a shot. Instead the tunred it over two times in a row and UNC went on a quick 4-0 run. Then Flittner drained one final 3 near the end of the half (from about 27 feet) to make it a 15 point game again. That's the kid that helped beat Kentucky two years ago in Lexington. He had 22 that night.
Carolina leads it 53-38 at the half.
8:14 p.m., 15 point lead: Carolina leads this 42-27 with 3:48 to go in the half. That 6-foot-3 rebounder for GWU, Joshua Henley, he has six already in the game. He's been going up against someone six inches taller most of the night too. He's good at blocking out and knowing where the ball is going off the rim. Rebounding is about hustle, but its a skilled art as well. He led the nation in freshman rebounding last year with almost 11 per game, not bad for a 6-3 kid.
8:04 p.m., It's on: A fury of scoring by the Tar Heels here. The Wear twins are in with Davis, Ginyard and Drew. This unit is creating some turnovers and not giving the ball up. The scoring is incredibly balanced, 10 players have scored for UNC - Thompson leads with 10.
Carolina is all over the 'Runnin Bulldogs 39-22 with 6:53 to go in the half. If my calculations are correct UNC has only 1 turnover so far. I sounded like Doc from Back to the Future there.
7:56 p.m., Tempo picks up: We had some scoring outbursts here by both teams. Dexter Strickland made a nice break to the basket and made a lay-up. At the other end Grayson Flittner hit a couple of 3-pointers and found the big Australian for a two-handed dunk. Gardner-Webb is staying in it only down 23-17 with 11:03 left in the first half.
7:45 p.m., Inside play has Carolina up: Deon Thompson had a huge two-handed slam and Ginyard got a steal and a fast-break flush. Carolina got away with an early charge. I mean Larry Drew plowed over this kid and they called a block. But seriously in the grand scheme that will have no affect on the outcome of the game.
UNC leads 10-7 with 15:25 left to go in the first. Tyler Zeller checks in for Thompson. Hey, congrats to the field hockey team for winning a national championship yesterday.
7:35 p.m., Gametime: The lights go down, the intimidation factor kicks in. Larry Brown and Ty Lawson and some others show up on the jumbo-trons and give you some stats that let you know you are about to get blown out. Same starting lineups for UNC. Graves, Drew II, Ginyard, Thompson and Davis.
7:15 p.m., UNC loves the mp3: Many of the players for North Carolina wear their ipods or mp3 players in the shootaround before the official warm-ups. I'm sure a ton of players do that in the nation. But I noticed that a lot of the guys have the same headphones. They aren't the normal ipod buds either. I talked to one of the players a week ago about it and I learned that they were "Beats" by Dr. Dre. The line of phones came out about a year ago and they retail for close to $350 a pair. I don't think the last 20 pairs of phones I bought equaled $350, then again mine are always horrible. These phones are supposed to be top of the line for music listening. The enhance the highs, give deep bass and shut out the ambient noise.
They come in all-black and all-white. Ed Davis and Will Graves were out there sporting the whites tonight. I've seen at least five or six Heels wearing them around their necks after the games too. I guess those guys won't be needing phones for Christmas. But I think I know what I want. Good phones are a nice commodity in radio.
7:01 p.m., Big South against the ACC tonight: North Carolina better hope Gardner-Webb doesn't treat it like it did Kentucky back in 2007. Remember when the Runnin' Bulldogs went into Lexington in November and beat, no crushed No. 20 Kentucky 84-68? Their head coach Rick Scruggs was heard on every sports radio station in the country the day after, including 99.9 The Fan, which was only a month old at the time.
GWU went on to play in Madison Square Garden, stealing Kentucky's spot. GWU still has a few players that were key players on that year's team. Senior guard Grayson Flittner had 22 points in the win over Kentucky. He had good games in NYC that next week in losses to UCONN and Oklahoma. He was named to the all tournament team. He's a senior this year, along with Australian big man Auryn MacMillan. He is averaging near a double-double in the Bulldogs' three wins over patsies to start the year.
Also look out for sophomore Joshua Henley. He led the nation last year in rebounding by a freshman, averaging over 10 per game. He's averaging over 10 per game this year too, and he's only 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. It sounds like he has a Dennis Rodman like work ethic on the glass. I can't wait to see how he does it against this big team.
The 'Runnin Bulldogs are in their second season in the Big South. They finished 13-17 last year and 9-9 in conference. I think I already saw this league's best in Radford on Saturday. The Highlanders got pounded by Duke, but the Big South is always a strong mid-major league.
UNC will try to wipe away the feeling of getting blown out by Syracuse. The Heels are partly responsible for 'Cuse's big jump in the polls all the way to the Top 10. That Syracuse team is really good, but Carolina needs to obviously show big improvement in guard play and ball security. It is averaging nearly 20 turnovers per game in its 4-1 start.
