UNC escapes Blacksburg with a win against Hokies

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With four seconds left in North Carolina’s 60-56 win against Virginia Tech, Leslie McDonald was back at the line. He had just been there 31 seconds earlier. No. 19 UNC was up by four points against Virginia Tech and two free throws would help the Tar Heels suffocate the Hokie comeback.

McDonald missed both.

Now, with the Tar Heels up by three points, McDonald would come to the line and miss his third free throw in a row.

Coach Roy Williams had a few tactical words of wisdom for him.

“I really did a great job coaching at the end,” Williams said. “I screamed at Leslie and told him to make the free throw. That’s really intelligent.”

Inspired by his coach, McDonald toed the line for the fourth time. And for the first time in the game, made one.

“Once I knocked down that last one,” he said. “I was pretty satisfied.”

McDonald’s free throw gave UNC a four-point lead with four seconds left and a Hokie heave at the buzzer fell short along with Virginia Tech’s comeback. The Tar Heels had escaped with the win — their 11th in a row.

“That’s a couple games in a row where we haven’t played our best basketball and we’re still able to come out with a win,” said sophomore point guard Marcus Paige. “So, obviously we’re not super pleased with the way we played, but at this stage in the season, when we’re on the road we’ll take whatever we can get.”

Paige tried to take whatever he could get as well, but it wasn’t much.

The sophomore guard scored on his first two shots from the field and then didn’t score again until 7:24 left in the second half.

Paige did make an appearance at the line late in the game, and sank two free throws to give UNC a seven-point lead with just more than a minute left.

He finished just over his season-low with nine points.

“I just think we’re learning how to win in different ways,” Paige said. “On nights we’ll have great shooting from three randomly and win that way. Other nights, it’ll be our defense. We held them under 40 percent today — so we’re starting to find ways to win in other ways.”

The Tar Heels couldn’t rally around any particular player during the game. After a career-high 35 points in an overtime win against N.C. State Wednesday, Paige was held to nine points and one assist and the Tar Heels still escaped with a win.

McDonald, who had 21 in a win against Duke last week, had 14 points. McAdoo had 15 and J.P. Tokoto had 12.

Just as no player stood out during the competition, the competition itself didn’t have the same gravitas.

After emotional games against Duke and N.C. State, the Virginia Tech faceoff was noticeably lacking the same weight. Still, Williams said his team has no excuse for not playing passionately in every game.

“I think it’s a bunch of junk,” Williams said. “If I get to play 29 games I’m going to play my blankety-blank off 29 times.”

Before Saturday, three of those 29 games had been ugly. Three times the Tar Heels had been held to 60 points or fewer — to Alabama-Birmingham, Miami and Syracuse — and all three times UNC had lost. But finally, the Tar Heels fell on the right side of a game where so much was going wrong.

“You have to understand you’re going to go through a season sometimes you’re going to play really well, and you hope you win those games,” Williams said. “Sometimes you could even lose those, but you hope you win. But to have a great year you have to win a lot of games ugly to be honest with you.”

sports@dailytarheel.com