Joel Berry’s free throws hinder UNC in loss

DURHAM — Listen.

There’s water trickling from the showerhead in the visitor’s locker room at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The faint rustle of ties being tied, all the North Carolina men’s basketball players weaving strands of purple and gray fabric into sturdy knots.

But that’s all. There’s no talking. Not even a whisper about Duke’s 86-78 win over UNC just moments earlier.

Everyone is silent.

And it echoes. Almost as if the quiet is a voice of its own, loud enough to speak for every dejected face at once.

Joel Berry is quiet, too. He isn’t usually vocal, but here, just footsteps off the court where he and the rest of the Tar Heels (21-5, 9-3 ACC) came up short against Duke (19-5, 7-4 ACC), he’s especially reserved.

Maybe it’s just the loss weighing on him, or maybe it’s his role in it. The fact that, for a second consecutive year, he missed eight shots in this cramped, stuffy gym.

“I don’t think he had a great game,” head coach Roy Williams said. “He missed some free throws that really ticked him off.”

Berry only had four points in the first half Thursday, and missed both his 3-point tries.

But after halftime, Berry was a new player. The man so often short with his words let his play do the talking.

“J.B. just went and made some plays,” Justin Jackson said. “You know, that’s what he does.”

And then, free throws.

With less than five to play, Berry stepped to the line. UNC trailed by one. Two made free throws would have put the team up again, reclaimed the advantage in a game that ended with 17 lead changes.

“I had a chance to go one-and-one,” Berry said, “and I missed.”

But he’d get a shot — or rather, two — at redemption.

Down three with 2:20 to play, Berry returned to the free-throw line. He eyed the rim, bounced the ball, cocked back the shot — and missed. He lunged forward, grabbed the ball before the referee could, slammed it hard into the court. There was anger. Fire. And even though he made the second free throw just after, his miss kept his team in a hole it couldn’t afford to wallow in.

A hole that, as it turned out, was inescapable.

The Blue Devils drained a few 3-pointers late to put the game out of reach, but as has been the case all season, Berry kept shooting. On Thursday, they didn’t fall.

Make no mistake — Berry, who finished with 15 points, did not single-handedly lose his team the game. But he also couldn’t single-handedly win it, as has often been the case this year.

And so maybe that’s why he took his time in the locker room after the game. The meticulous tying of shoelaces, the careful zipping-up of his brown leather bag.

Eventually Berry faced reporters, took the loss like a haymaker and answered their questions nonetheless. Reporters stepped away, thanked him for his time. Finally, he was left alone again, back in the silent locker room.

Then he tweeted, said the one thing he hadn’t to journalists — he said how he really felt about the loss.

“To everyone, I let y’all down,” the tweet read. “My fault!”

And then, two more words. Maybe the only two words he, his team and all the disappointed fans needed to hear.

“Move on!”

@BrendanRMarks

sports@dailytarheel.com