In the North Carolina men’s basketball team’s second game of the season Friday, the team was unselfish. The Tar Heels were giving things away left and right.
They gave Holy Cross hope, letting what should have been a blowout remain close for 39 minutes.
They gave the Crusaders too many opportunities on offense — being out-rebounded 25-20 — and gave away too many opportunities on their end of the court, missing 37 shots in the game.
But when the final buzzer sounded, the Tar Heels gave a sigh of relief. They had survived Holy Cross’s crusade and emerged with an ugly, 62-54 win.
North Carolina only had four turnovers in the first half according to the box score, but with the amount of missed shots that UNC did not recover, the Tar Heels gave Holy Cross a multitude of extra possessions.
“We didn’t have any second-chance points,” coach Roy Williams said.
In the first half, UNC shot 27.3 percent from the field. The team missed 24 shots, but only pulled down four offensive rebounds.
“I think my freshman year we were the No. 1 rebounding team in the country and just looking at this year’s team — we’re so big, especially when I play the three … There’s no way a team should out-rebound us,” junior forward James Michael McAdoo said.
“(There’s) no real potion for it, we’ve just got to come out and want it more next game.”