Tar Heels thump Tribe in NIT rematch

Three days after scoring a season-high 18 points against Texas, North Carolina sophomore guard Dexter Strickland set a new career mark with 19 points to lead the Tar Heels past William & Mary, 85-60, Tuesday night at the Smith Center.

“When Dex is attacking, we definitely feed off of that,” freshman Reggie Bullock said. “That’s Carolina basketball. Dexter does a great job of that, and the team’s just got to do it with him.”

Strickland now has 50 points in his past three games while shooting a blistering 62 percent from the floor.

It’s not just getting to the rim, something Strickland has always been able to do with ease, that’s made him so effective of late. He’s also found his shooting stroke, going 11-for-13 from the free-throw line and 3-for-4 from long distance in the Tar Heels’ past three contests.

“I want guys to be aggressive,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “I think he’s been more aggressive. I think it’s really big for our team.”

Strickland’s hot streak has come on the heels of a game against Evansville that saw him take a season-low one shot and record four points in 21 minutes.

“I’ve just been putting in the work, and I knew that hard work would pay off,” said Strickland, who also had three steals in his 23 minutes of action.

Tyler Zeller chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds, while Harrison Barnes added 13 second-half points after being kept scoreless in the first half. But as good as the Tar Heels were on offense Tuesday night, they might have played even better on defense — especially in the first half.

UNC held the Tribe to 27-percent shooting through the game’s first 20 minutes, giving the Tar Heels a 42-20 lead at the break.

“Putting defensive pressure really helps our offensive game,” UNC guard Leslie McDonald said. “But I was very surprised — I thought they were going to shoot it like they did last year.”

When the two teams last met in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament nine months ago, the Tribe gave North Carolina all it could handle from long range, knocking down 16 of 43 3-point attempts. William & Mary wasn’t able to repeat that success Tuesday night, shooting just 6-26 from distance with all six makes coming in the second half.

In addition to the six 3-pointers, the Tribe shot a much improved 47 percent from the field after halftime. Some of that increased production might have been due to the loss of John Henson, the Tar Heels’ leader in blocks and rebounds.
Henson aggravated a right-thumb injury that has been bothering him all season just before halftime and didn’t return.

Williams said the team has four days off for the holidays and won’t practice until Sunday night, two days before the Rutgers game.

“Hopefully it will be a time that will really help John,” Williams said. “I have no idea right now what’s going to happen with him. It was swollen and really painful, so we decided not to play him, and he’ll be getting some examination by the doctors tonight.”

Without Henson contesting shots down low, William & Mary’s wing players were able to go back-door on UNC at will, scoring 30 points in the paint. Most of those points came from sophomore Kyle Gaillard, who had a coming-out party against UNC. Gaillard averaged only 6.4 points per game coming into Tuesday’s contest, but scored 25 against the Tar Heels, many of which came off back-door cuts and alley-oops.

“They got us a lot on the back-door cuts tonight, and me being aware of what’s going on off the ball is very important,” Strickland said. “We’ve got to get better.”