Thompson, Zeller lead UNC in exhibition win

Photo by Phong Dinh

No. 6 North Carolina got 23 points from Deon Thompson, 17 from Tyler Zeller, and a heck of a defensive showing in a 107-59 exhibition win against Belmont Abbey on Friday night.

Thompson scored UNC's opening four points and finished 11-for-12 from the floor to lead all scorers.

"Deon's not going to go 11-for-12 every night, but I wish he would," coach Roy Williams said. 

Zeller's 17 points came at the expense of a Belmont Abbey team that doesn't field a player taller than 6-foot 8-inches, and the seven-foot tall Zeller had his way inside.

"Belmont Abbey is going to have some good things happen for them in their level of play, we're just so much bigger," Williams said.

Freshman John Henson also impressed on the defensive end. He tallied just five points, but chipped in four official blocks, eight rebounds and several times chased down fast-break layups from behind to deny the bucket.

While UNC dominated both the boards (UNC outrebounded the Crusaders 56-36) and the post (76 of UNC's 107 points were in the paint) the size-heavy Tar Heels struggled against the defense of a smaller, quicker Belmont Abbey.

The Crusaders forced 20 turnovers from UNC and had 11 steals.

"Turnovers are the biggest issue for us right now," point guard Larry Drew II said. "We just have to try to limit our mistakes and be proud of our possession."

Drew passed for eight assists and just three turnovers, but shot only 1-4 from the floor.

In fact, shooting remains a question mark for UNC. The Tar Heels went 2-8 from beyond the arc as a team, and Will Graves — the player tabbed as a potential shooter in the preseason — went 0-for-2 from deep and made only two driving layups.

"We have a lot of streaky shooters on this team," Drew said. "We have a lot of guys that can get to the rack and shoot the outside jumpshot. I think the whole thing is going to be confidence."