{"id":1941709,"date":"2026-11-02T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=1941709"},"modified":"2026-11-02T23:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T04:48:22","slug":"able-scores-18-as-mens-basketball-tops-western-carolina-80-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=1941709","title":{"rendered":"UNC coach Malone received &#8220;first-win&#8221; game ball from legendary Tar Heels coach Williams after Heels top Western Carolina, 80-72"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/goheels.com\/common\/controls\/image_handler.aspx?thumb_prefix=rp_primary&amp;image_path=\/images\/2026\/11\/2\/Malone_Michael.wcu.1013.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Malone \nUniversity of North Carolina Men\u2019s Basketball v Western Carolina University; WCU \nDean E. Smith Center \nChapel Hill, NC \nMonday, November 2, 2026 \" \/><\/p>\n<p>Carolina got 18 points from Matt Able, led from start to finish and held off a pesky Western Carolina squad, 80-72, on Monday night in the Smith Center in Michael Malone&#8217;s first official game as the Tar Heel head coach. <a href=\"https:\/\/goheels.com\/news\/2026\/11\/2\/mens-basketball-mbb-recap-vs-western-carolina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click here to read the full article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coach Michael Malone receives game ball from Coach Roy Williams. Click link or photo below.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QrZ-DT4vz8A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/QrZ-DT4vz8A<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QrZ-DT4vz8A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1-1024x559.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1941744\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.8319362093641383;width:595px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1-1024x559.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1-675x368.jpg 675w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot_20261102_233206_Gallery1.jpg 1079w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carolina got 18 points from Matt Able, led from start to finish and held off a pesky Western Carolina squad, 80-72, on Monday night in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1941751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1941709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1941709"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1941752,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941709\/revisions\/1941752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}