Bobcats Pick Apart Struggling Tar Heel 'D'

Steve Esterkamp, Brandon Hunter, Patrick Flomo, Sonny Johnson. Each one got his chance to break down the North Carolina defender across from him and slash to the hoop.

And each one took advantage of his opportunity -- over and over again.

Ohio preyed on UNC's defense for much of its 86-78 win Wednesday at the Smith Center, dismantling UNC at will with its one-on-one game.

"I think everybody was surprised that we were able to get inside," said the 6-foot-6 forward Esterkamp, who scored a game-high 23 points. "But also, we kind of realized that they were getting up into us, so we had to go by them."

And so they did. The 6-foot-7 Hunter caused a mismatch problem for UNC -- too big for Jason Capel to be able to handle him inside and too quick and athletic for Kris Lang to be able to keep tabs on him on the perimeter.

He hit 3 of 4 3-pointers but got the rest of his 20 points bullying his way inside against Lang, taking him off the dribble or cleaning up on the offensive glass.

Johnson, a forward, chipped in with 19 points and Flomo, a center, added 12.

"Our defense stunk, and when we finally got into it we were too far back," said UNC coach Matt Doherty. "This team can't afford to come out that way."

The blame was far from Lang's alone. The Tar Heels collectively did a poor job of collapsing and helping each other out when a Bobcat drove to the hoop, leading to easy layups and offensive boards.

At no point was Ohio's offensive advantage more obvious than at the start of the second half. The Bobcats scored on eight consecutive possessions after halftime, with Esterkamp responsible for half.

He converted a layup after a steal, drained a 3, hit another layup and drove around forward Will Johnson as the Bobcats, which were 19 of 30 in the second half, took a 53-37 lead.

"After seeing me hit easy shots, wide-open shots, everybody else just followed along, and they started hitting their open shots," Esterkamp said.

Said Capel: "That set the tone for the rest of the second half. We made a good effort to come back, but it was too late."

Too late because the Bobcats just kept on coming.

"We're all scorers and we can all score one-on-one pretty good, and we took advantage of that," Hunter said. "We're used to having to deal with being double- and triple-teamed and having to settle for an open jump shot because the lane is so clogged."

No such problems Wednesday night. The lane was wide open. Which left plenty of room to spread things around.

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.