The game was barely three minutes old, his team was already out to a comfortable lead and senior guard Jay Lamothe crashed into the scorers table diving for a loose ball.
He didn’t get there in time, but per usual, Lamothe was setting the tone.
It didn’t take long for his teammates to match his effort as the North Carolina JV men's basketball team rolled to a 103-45 blow out win over visiting Trinity.
“He’s our leader,” JV head coach Hubert Davis said of Lamothe. “For any team to be its best, you have to have a guy that’s an extension of the coach. Jay is that.”
Listed at a generous 6 feet tall, Lamothe is one of the team’s best low post scorers, doing most of his damage from inside the paint using creativity and toughness. Davis says he points to Lamothe as a role model for the rest of his team.
“He always brings it in practice, games and shootarounds. He’s the leader of this team and I’ve told them, if you can follow the intensity, the effort and the attention to detail that Jay does then as a team we’ll be fine,” Davis said.
Whatever Lamothe may lack in size he makes up for with heart.
“I’ve always been a little undersized, having a big man’s heart in a little man’s body,” Lamothe said with a smile. “I’ve always naturally liked contact so I feel pretty good down there.”
Lamothe scored all 15 of his points in the first half, helping the Tar Heels take a 51-21 lead into halftime. One might expect a team up 30 at halftime to ease up a bit in the second half, but not Davis’ JV Tar Heels. They make sure to take full advantage of every minute of precious playing time on the storied Smith Center floor.
