Tar Heels play confidence-building game

NEWARK, N.J. — If the Marquette jerseys were already tough enough to look at, then the first half wasn’t much better.

North Carolina was a matchup nightmare on paper for the Golden Eagles, and it played out as so in the Prudential Center on Friday night.

But for as much as UNC dominated its No. 11 seeded opponent, Marquette wasn’t exactly putting up much resistance. North Carolina shot 45 percent from the field compared to Marquette’s 20 percent. And in a Sweet 16 contest where a team wants to get better at every level, the Tar Heels needed to take something away from the 81-63 drubbing.

“You learned how good it felt playing so well in the first half,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “In the national championship game a few years ago we were up 21 at half against a great team and a great coach and they cut it to 13. But you keep playing.

“The teams you’re playing at this level aren’t gonna quit or give in. You got to finish games. Their defense got us spread out way too much so tomorrow we’ll work and do a little better job on the offensive end of the floor.”

North Carolina put together one of its best halves of the season by holding the Golden Eagles to just six first-half field goals and zero assists and forcing 12 turnovers. The Tar Heels were clicking, but not against a team that offered the toughest competition.

“I always want to be ahead by 25,” freshman point guard Kendall Marshall said. “I don’t think any player in the country would ever say they want to play in a close game. If you’re winning that’s great, so why put yourself in a situation to lose?”

Prior to this season, the Tar Heels starting lineup featured 32 minutes of actual NCAA tournament experience — all belonging to junior forward Tyler Zeller.

Sophomore John Henson, whose only previous postseason experience is in Greensboro or the NIT, admitted he doesn’t know if it’s a good thing to win in a blowout as the tournament field narrows to eight.

“This is my first tournament, so I really don’t know,” Henson said. “It’s always good to get an easy win and kind of sit back and rest a little bit, but I can’t tell you that until after Sunday’s game.”

Yet with the letdown of a game that overall was not very competitive, the silver lining lies in the fact that the Tar Heels will have fresher legs than normal for a team playing two games in three days.

And that Elite Eight contest against either Ohio State or Kentucky promises to be tougher than Friday’s game.

“I think it gives us a lot of confidence to know we can go out there and do what we need to do,” Barnes said. “I think the next game will obviously be a lot closer with two great teams in Ohio State and Kentucky. It’s a good confidence builder for us.”

Marquette coach Buzz Williams took his fourth timeout of the game a minute into the second half after Dexter Strickland stole a Darius Johnson-Odom pass and took it down the court for a layup.

Out of the timeout, Strickland stole the ensuing in-bounds pass and finished on the other end with an effortless one-handed dunk as the Tar Heels increased their lead to 31, proving the team was ready for Sunday.

“You want to have a game where you have fun but at the same time you want to learn from the experience,” sophomore Leslie McDonald said. “Our hard work and our determination is what put us in the situation of being up 30. We couldn’t stop that passion. That was in us from the get-go.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.