Tigers can’t keep Barnes off the board

With nine minutes remaining in the game, Sisyphus’ boulder proved too heavy to push for the 56th time in 56 tries.

This time, stopping its momentum was forward Harrison Barnes.

Barnes scored 10 points in the final 9:17 of No. 8 North Carolina’s 74-52 win Saturday against Clemson to add one more loss to Clemson’s 0-56 all-time record in Chapel Hill.

Barnes finished the game with 24 points and seven rebounds — his third 20-point performance in four games.

The forward has developed a knack for deflating the Tigers. In his four games against them (13-13, 5-7 ACC) Barnes is averaging just more than 24 points a game.

“I’m sure he’s averaging 18 or 20 against everybody, so I don’t know if it’s that skewed,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “He’s just a great player and we don’t have a guy that’s his size that matches up very well.”

Barnes had a different theory.

Either way, Barnes excelled against the Tigers early and often in the UNC (23-4, 10-2) win. Clemson had no one tall enough to block his jump shot and no player strong enough to stay in front of Barnes and slow him down.

At times all Barnes had to do was create a little space, either with his crossover or his forearm, pull up and make an uncontested shot.

Barnes was more aggressive physically, and he seemed to be in game-closing mode from the start, scoring UNC’s first four points.

“My teammates were finding me,” he said. “I usually have better second halves, so it was nice to have a good first half where I was knocking them down.”

Barnes finished the first half with a team-high 10 points.

“He was doing a great job, and then after that Kendall got going and started hitting all the open guys for layups and shots,” forward Tyler Zeller said.

UNC didn’t get on the board until Barnes connected on a shot three minutes into the contest.

And he certainly helped UNC when the Tigers pulled within six points in the second half.

Barnes made five of his eight shots in the second half — dagger after dagger until Clemson could no longer make a comeback.

Barnes said that aggression and level of play will stick around through the end of the season.

“This is what you play for, this is what you come to college basketball for,” Barnes said. “You’re preparing for March Madness, and if you go out on the court these last few games and you don’t’ leave it all out there, you’re cheating yourself and you’re cheating your teammates.

“This is what your season is going to be defined as, these next coming games.”

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