Tar Heels survive snowstorm, beat Rutgers, 78-55

NEW YORK — Inclement weather couldn’t stop the North Carolina men’s basketball team from showing up at its Tuesday-night game against Rutgers — and once the Tar Heels took the floor in New York City, the Scarlet Knights couldn’t do much to stop them, either.

After waiting out two days of flight delays in the Triangle, the Tar Heels found Madison Square Garden downright cozy, thumping the Scarlet Knights, 78-55.

“It was a lot of distraction for us, but life has a lot of distractions,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “I told the guys, ‘You’ve got to step up and play.’ I think the key to the game is that it was a win for North Carolina.”

The Tar Heels opened the game on the offensive, following the opening whistle with an 11-2 run capped by a Harrison Barnes crossover five minutes into the first half. From there, the Tar Heels exposed the Rutgers defense by rotating the ball along the perimeter for open looks. UNC capitalized by shooting an impressive 57 percent from the field in the first half to go into the intermission ahead 42-22.

“When the ball goes in the basket, everything looks so much better,” Williams said. “My gosh, we could be a terrible basketball team, but the shots keep going in, and everybody thinks you’re great.”

But UNC didn’t just shoot well Tuesday evening, it played strong defense, too. The Tar Heels kept Rutgers from finding a rhythm throughout the evening and allowed their second-lowest point total of the season. Though Rutgers forward Jonathan Mitchell lit up the scoreboard with a game-high 20 points, the rest of the Scarlet Knights shot less than 29 percent from the field.

“We have to pride ourselves on defense because that’s something we do really well,” UNC sophomore forward John Henson said. “Even when you’re not scoring, if you play defense, you can come out on top. And that’s what we want to do.”

After building a healthy lead early in the game, Williams was able to showcase his team’s depth. The UNC bench outscored Rutgers’ 38-13, and the Tar Heels won convincingly even though none of their starters finished in double figures.

The Tar Heel back-ups were led by sophomore shooting guard Leslie McDonald, who canned a pair of 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions midway through the first period and finished the evening as UNC’s leading scorer with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

“It’s just one of them shooting days,” McDonald said. “Just going out there before the game in warm-ups, John (Henson) was telling us that everybody was hitting. So John was like, ‘Nobody should miss. We should have a great shooting night.’”

UNC guard Justin Watts complemented McDonald’s efforts off the bench and contributed 10 points highlighted by a thunderous put-back slam off a missed jumper by Dexter Strickland.

Though the backcourt reserves had a big night, Williams says the team’s lack of front-court depth could still be a problem for the Tar Heels going forward.

“We have ten guys that I feel comfortable with, but we do not have enough big guys,” Williams said. “We have to play Justin (Watts) as a post player, and that’s difficult for him….I am hopeful everyone is getting a little more confident in their own play, and it will help us as we go through.”