The North Carolina men’s junior varsity basketball team dropped its second game in a row at the hands of the Guilford Technical Community College Titans, 80-69.
The Titans jumped to an early 4-0 lead and never looked back. The seven fouls the Tar Heels committed in the first six minutes inhibited their chances at closing the gap.
Like with seven minutes to go in the first half and his team trailing by six, guard Kendall Smith snagged a long rebound and took off on a fast break, but before he could get the lay-up attempt off he was whistled for a charge. The Tar Heels could never catch the breaks to get the momentum going in their favor.
Freshman Denzel Robinson tipped in a rebound as time expired in the first half cutting the lead down to 34-29 at the break, but the Titans stretched out their lead to as much as 16 points in the second half.
The Tar Heels put together short runs attempting to cut in to the lead but could not bring the difference to less than 10 points. But the Titans kept the Tar Heels at a safe distance with control of the glass.
“They had more shots than us, that’s just loose balls and rebounds,” sophomore Miguel Cardona said. “And it wasn’t so much us not boxing out as so much it was just securing the ball. So had we secured the ball and got the shot count closer together, that gives us a chance.”
Though the Titans had a size advantage in the paint, guard play made the difference. Guards Duane Brown, Dennis Mesider and Darius Perry all had 14 points for the Titans.
“They were deceptive, and they were well coached.” Cardona said. “Their back cuts were hurting us a little bit. We tried to trap the ball screen a few times big men rolled and they had some pretty good size so that hurt us a little bit.”
Sophomore Patrick McPhail and Robinson both tallied a game-high 16 points for UNC. Six-foot-six freshman James Manor added eight and Shaun Scott scored five points, including a follow dunk in traffic.
