Advice pushes Drew, UNC past 49ers

As has become tradition over the last few years, Larry Drew II and his father, current Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew, hold telephone chats after almost every one of the younger’s games.

Recently, father has impressed one primary theme upon son: “Attack.”

Employing what he dubs his “unfair advantage” — his father’s advice — Drew put together his finest performance of UNC’s young season to fuel the Tar Heels’ 96-91 victory against Long Beach State at the Smith Center on Saturday.

The junior point guard scored 13 points, handed out eight assists and largely orchestrated a late Tar Heel surge to stave off a furious second-half charge from the 49ers and improve UNC to 7-3 on the season.

Harrison Barnes added 19 points and 10 rebounds, the first double-double of his career, while T.J. Robinson notched a game-high 31 points for LBSU in a losing effort.

“One of the things my dad also told me after the Evansville game was that I kind of faded out in the second half,” Drew II said.

“I think I’d only scored one basket in the first half of today’s game, and I didn’t want to just fade away in the middle of it. I wanted to be assertive — more assertive than I was in the first half.”

Drew notched just two points in Saturday’s early going, instead content to defer to the hot hands of his teammates at the game’s outset.

The Tar Heels poured in nine first-half 3-pointers, including five from sophomore Leslie McDonald, to open up a 48-33 halftime margin over LBSU, who UNC held to just 3-of-16 shooting from long range in the opening stanza.

While the 49ers found their range in the second half, North Carolina’s defensive focus strayed, allowing LBSU to trim lead to two on a Tristan Wilson 2-on-1 layup with 8:40 to play.

“In the second half, defensively, we were not very good,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Drew and Barnes added a pair of baskets apiece to push the Tar Heel lead back to six, but a Greg Plater 3-pointer sliced the lead in half.

Then Drew took over.

Much maligned in the early season for his often poor decisions, Drew displayed an uncanny composure in carrying UNC to the finish line.

With UNC up by three, the Encino, Calif., native first dropped a pinpoint dime to Tyler Zeller in the post, who was fouled before he could convert the easy deuce.

Zeller knocked down both free throws though, and Drew came right back to him on the next possession, lobbing the ball gently into the post for a routine lay-in.

After Justin Knox’s pick-and-roll slam put UNC up nine, Drew nailed a pull-up jumper, then found Zeller again for an open dunk to give UNC a commanding 10-point margin with 1:53 remaining.

“Part of the learning process for me is just knowing what I’m comfortable doing and knowing what my strengths are,” Drew said.

“I can push the ball on the fast break, get people easy buckets and get my shot, but in late game situations, when the clock is running down and it’s close, I just feel a little bit more comfortable seeing everything, seeing the defense and just trying to make stuff happen.”