Eagles claw back, Tar Heels endure

For a few seconds Saturday afternoon at the Smith Center, it looked as if No. 19 North Carolina might finally pay for its inaccuracy against Boston College.

As Reggie Jackson’s would-be game-winning 3-pointer floated over the outstretched hands of UNC’s John Henson at the top of the arc, the ball looked destined for nylon and the Tar Heels for a loss befitting their third straight sub-40 percent shooting performance.

But Henson managed to disrupt Jackson’s attempt just enough that it caught the inside lip of both the front rim and the back iron before falling out, and the Tar Heels absconded with their third consecutive victory, 48-46.

“I believe they cheated, maybe tightened screws on the rim,” Jackson said with a smile. “I definitely thought that was in 100 percent, but John Henson made a great play, and they came out with the win.”

Just as in wins against Clemson and Wake Forest in the preceding week, the Tar Heels (20-6, 10-2 ACC) were absolved of their shooting sins by their defensive prowess.

BC did not score for the first seven minutes of the game, as UNC conceded dribble penetration to the smaller Eagles with the rangy Henson and 7-foot Tyler Zeller in the paint to contest layups.

The Eagles (16-10, 6-6 ACC) scored just 10 points in the paint all game and shot 27 percent from the field.

But BC hung around by tracking back on defense to stifle UNC’s potent transition game and employing a 2-3 zone, the ACC’s recently discovered kryptonite for the UNC offense.

The Tar Heels shot 36.8 percent from the field and posted the lowest scoring total by a UNC team in Smith Center history.

Despite beating the Eagles by 32 points in Chestnut Hill, Mass., three weeks prior, UNC led just 21-20 at halftime.

“I think we need to act more mature in terms of our mental approach,” UNC forward Harrison Barnes said. “Just because you played someone once and you beat them, you can’t come out there and just expect the same thing to happen again.”

UNC looked liked it was going to pull away early in the second half after Zeller, who finished with a game-high 16 points, scored seven consecutive points and collected six rebounds during the first 5:37 of the period to build a 31-23 lead.

The Tar Heels led by as many as 15 in the second half, but a pair of 3-pointers by BC guard Corey Raji spurred an 8-0 run that brought the Eagles within five with 4:52 left.

The run coincided with a stretch in which the Tar Heels turned the ball over five times in six possessions.

Though UNC outrebounded BC all game, the Eagles mitigated this advantage with a half-court trap that netted 11 steals.

“You’re not going to be tough if you turn the ball over five straight possessions and take a bad shot,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Toughness is doing the right thing.”

Barnes made a clutch jumper from the elbow to extend the lead to six with two and a half minutes left, but another Jackson 3-pointer gave him the last of his 13 points and made it 48-46 with 1:12 left.

After draining 25 seconds from the clock, UNC point guard Kendall Marshall drove past Jackson to the basket, but his layup spun out of the cylinder to set up the tension-fraught final possession.

“There’s an old saying, ‘You’d rather be lucky than good,’” Williams said. “I’m lucky to be lucky and good, both. At times, I think this team is really good.”

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