Lot of Tar Heel fans may have missed basketball’s first loss

noiowaThe 71-67 loss to Northern Iowa was a game that a lot of North Carolina fans may have missed. They may have been happy they did but with the UNC football team playing for a division title and with the basketball game on ESPN3, which is available online only, it’s understandable.

Here’s what you missed. No. 1 North Carolina blew a 16-point second-half lead as homestanding Northern Iowa used the long ball to come from behind to win.

UNC’s Justin Jackson, who finished with 25 points, led the Heels to a 50-34 lead early in the second half. But Northern Iowa went on a 22-4 run that included three straight three-pointers to take a 56-54 lead in the last nine minutes.

Meeks started the game with eight quick points but went more than 30 minutes of game time without another bucket and ended with just 10 points. Defensively, Northern Iowa was able to double team the big men when they got close to the basket. Offensively, the Panthers were able to penetrate the lane and then push it back out for open threes. The tide seemed to turn a bit when Northern Iowa was able to bottle up Kennedy Meeks and the Tar Heels settled for jump shots. Even big men were taking mid-range jumpers.

If Carolina is going to live up to a No. 1 ranking, the big men are going to have to dominate, regardless of whether Marcus Paige is in the game or not.

It was to be a homecoming game for Paige, who is from Iowa, but he sat out once again with a broken bone in his hand.

“If you had told me (Marcus) was going to break his hand and not be able to play, I wouldn’t have scheduled this game,” Williams said.

For more on the game, please click here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.