UNC came out of the locker room playing aggressive defensively, forcing numerous turnovers and storming out to a 15-point lead before Long Beach State even scored. The Tar Heels moved to 3-0 as they lead by 23 at the half and by 30 in the second half before settling for a 93-67 victory.<\/p>\n
Joel Berry scored a career-high tying 23 points while Kennedy Meeks added 15, Justin Jackson had 14 and freshman Tony Bradley got 10. <\/p>\n
The Tar Heels played three games in five days and Coach Roy Williams said it showed with some sloppiness.<\/p>\n
Carolina is down two players with Theo Pinson out until January or later and Luke Maye out for two or three weeks with an ankle sprain.<\/p>\n
As a result, nine players saw 17 minutes or more of playing time. It’s always good to be able to play guys multiple minutes early in the season.<\/p>\n
This is the first time since the 1994-95 season that the Tar Heels have scored more than 90 points in each of the first three games. That affords Coach Williams the opportunity to play a lot of guys a lot of minutes.<\/p>\n
The Tar Heels now head off to the Maui tournament with the first game against Hawaii on Friday. They’ll be without longtime assistant coach Steve Robinson who will not fly with the team due to a blood clot in his leg.<\/p>\n