If Conner Flynn was nervous about playing his first game in a North Carolina jersey in Thursday night’s junior varsity matchup against Dudley High School, it didn’t show.
Although the Tar Heels once led 60-44 in the second half, Dudley shrunk the gap to just four points with four and a half minutes remaining and the shot clock in single digits.
Flynn, ball in hand at the top of the key, pulled up like a veteran and sunk a 3-pointer at the buzzer to preserve the lead UNC had come perilously close to losing.
With Flynn running the point, the Tar Heels went on to defeat the Dudley Panthers 85-78 in the teams’ first meeting since 2009, when then-recruit P.J. Hairston dropped 23 points on the Tar Heels’ JV squad.
But on Friday, a 6-foot-1 high school junior named Sam Hunt was UNC’s primary concern. Although he led all scorers with 36 points on 7 for 12 shooting from beyond the arc, coach Jerod Haase was satisfied with his team’s defensive effort, especially that of Kyle Currie, who had been given the defensive assignment on Hunt.
“I thought Kyle had a good game,” Haase said. “It wasn’t a consistent game, but he did a good job to defensively guard their best player. You’ll laugh, because (Hunt) had 36 points, but he did a good job of challenging him.”
Not only did Currie carry a heavy load on defense, he led the way on offense as the leading scorer with 18 points.
On defense, a 1-3-1 zone initially kept the Panthers out of the paint. The Tar Heels took advantage of Dudley’s youth with a fast-paced offensive attack similar to that run by their varsity counterparts.
Accustomed to playing in eight-minute quarters, Dudley’s players were showing signs of fatigue by the time they called their first timeout.
