{"id":736974,"date":"2019-03-24T18:15:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T22:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=736974"},"modified":"2026-07-26T13:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T17:52:47","slug":"maye-little-bust-zone-as-tar-heels-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=736974","title":{"rendered":"Maye, Little bust zone as Tar Heels advance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Maye and Nassir Little found holes in the middle of the defense as each scored 20 en route to an 81-59 shellacking of Washington to advance to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

The Huskies, winners of the Pac-10 regular season, packed into a zone from the start. UNC’s Coby White loosened the zone with four threes over a five-minute period in the first half. And then Maye, Little and others attacked the middle.<\/p>\n

“The key today was getting it to the middle – that was a soft spot,” said UNC’s Cam Johnson, who had a team-high seven assists.<\/p>\n

When Maye got it, he tended to turn quickly and hit short or mid-range jumpers. When Little got it, he tended to attack the rim and elevate over the defenders for baskets.<\/p>\n

“Luke is an intelligent player who finds the holes in the zone really well,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Nas is gifted around the basket.”<\/p>\n

He said Little uses his quickness, leaping ability and power to cause opponents’ problems. “He can hurt a lot of people inside,” Coach Williams said. <\/p>\n

Little, who comes off the bench, got a little more playing time than usual as Garrison Brooks spent several minutes in the locker after getting his mouth busted. He had to have stitches and lost a tooth on a play where the offender wasn’t even charged with a foul.<\/p>\n

\"UNC's<\/a>
UNC’s Nassir Little elevated over Washington defenders all day. (UNC Sports Information photo.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>After Little put in a follow shot, was fouled and hit the free throw, the Heels had their biggest lead of the first half at 34-20.<\/p>\n

Carolina led only 41-33 at the half though as the Heels went through a turnover stretch. The Heels had 10 turnovers, including five out of eight possessions at one stretch.<\/p>\n

In the second half, the Heels cut the turnovers in half and shot over 50 percent from the field.<\/p>\n

The Huskies, who relied heavily on the three-point shot (they had only three two-point field goals in the second half), briefly cut the deficit to five in the first half. But then, the Heels went on a 13-0 run that set the tone for the second half and all but did in Washington. <\/p>\n

Johnson started the stretch with a three from the right corner and then hit a baseline jumper. After Maye hit a three, trailing the fastbreak, the Huskies called a timeout. But it didn’t slow the Heels as Brooks bounced an assist to Maye and then Maye hit a 10 footer in the lane.<\/p>\n

After White sunk a free throw, Carolin had its biggest lead to that point at 18, 54-36.<\/p>\n

It never got closer than 12 from then on out as the Tar Heels worked the lead up to ask many as 25 points.<\/p>\n

Joining Little and Maye in double figures were White, who had 17, and Johnson, who had 13.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels, now 29-6, play Auburn Friday evening. Washington, led by Nowell Jaylen’s 12 points, ends the season at 28-7.<\/p>\n

For more on the game, including a box score, please click here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke Maye and Nassir Little found holes in the middle of the defense as each scored 20 en route to an 81-59 shellacking of Washington to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736974","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=736974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737015,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736974\/revisions\/737015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=736974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=736974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=736974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}