North Carolina’s defense definitely won this 62-52 game against Maryland. In the first half, where the game was won, the Tar Heels scored 14 points off Terrapin turnovers, most of which were forced by Carolina’s aggressiveness on defense.<\/p>\n
“We just came out with a lot of intensity,” UNC’s Marcus Paige said. “The first half was probably the best half of basketball we’ve played all year. Right away from the beginning, just pressuring, they did have some turnovers but we caused some of those. We weren’t able to maintain it. They came out aggressive in the second half. But in the first half, we played some great basketball.”<\/p>\n
James Michael McAdoo says the sense of urgency came from Coach Williams but the players have to actually go out and do it.<\/p>\n
“Some of the games this year we haven’t done that at all, but as you can see when we do do it like in the first half, we’re a great basketball team. We can play phenomenal,” McAdoo said. “Other times like in the second half when we let down, you can see glimpses of how we used to be and how we still can be. I feel like that’s just coming with us maturing and continuing to buy into what Coach Roy is telling us.”<\/p>\n
Carolina will have to put two halves together to beat Duke and State this season.<\/p>\n