JV men's basketball falls to Davidson Community College

If the North Carolina’s junior varsity men’s basketball team were to lose Saturday, sophomore forward Sasha Seymore was determined to not let it be his fault.

As the game came to close, Seymore led a run that tied the game multiple times and ended with Seymore scoring six points in three Tar Heel possessions.

But it wasn’t enough for the Tar Heels, who lost to the Storm 86-84.

Seymore was a victim of the game’s scrappy play early on, suffering an injury above his eye. But he powered through to end the game with 24 points and 15 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass, and three blocks.

“It was one of those things that as soon as you start playing, you forget about it,” Seymore said of the injury, which he said would later require stitches.

Though Seymore’s efforts in the front court were valiant, turnovers by UNC’s back court proved to be an insurmountable challenge for the Tar Heels in their loss Saturday morning.

Though three of Davidson County Community College’s five guards measured in at six feet tall or less, the Storm forced 25 turnovers.

“They’re just little gnats,” guard Brian Whalen said of the Storm’s small, quick backcourt that forced Whalen into seven turnovers. “They’re just a pain in the butt.”

That pain didn’t keep Whalen from having success from beyond the three-point line, however.

Fighting through constant pressure from opposing guards, Whalen went three-for-five from three-point land to complement the effort of teammate Spenser Dalton, who was four-for-six.

But coach C.B. McGrath said it doesn’t matter how many points a team scores if it can’t make stops.

“It’s all about the defensive end,” McGrath said. “You’ve got to get stops before anything.”

In a scrappy game plagued with turnovers, UNC had problems with that aspect of the game, allowing 14 offensive rebounds, some of which led to three-pointers that stalled UNC’s run toward a comeback, and in the end, the Storm’s hustle was too much.

Even with Seymore’s late success, Davidson County left UNC with questions about how to keep poised under pressure.

“From now on, most of the teams we play are going to be more athletic than we are,” Seymore said. “They’re going to attack us, and we just have to learn how to attack back.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.