Tar Heels avoid another slow start, rout Huskies
North Carolina 81, Washington 59
On a whiteboard in the middle of the North Carolina locker room was written just one thing in blue marker: 16.
The No. 1 seed Tar Heels had just celebrated a dominant performance in Nationwide Arena on Sunday against Washington to book a trip to the Midwest Regional semifinals as one of the 16 teams left in the NCAA Tournament.
Coby White lit up the scoreboard from the threepoint line in the first half, and Luke Maye handled the glass and scored inside. Then Nassir Little had one of his best halves in a Tar Heels uniform to help North Carolina run away from the ninthseeded Huskies 81-59.
“I feel like we just came out with a different mentality,” White said. “Came in with a different level of focus today, and we came out and I think we punched them in the mouth early and then we just kept swinging.”
Maye and Little led the Tar Heels with 20 points each, followed by White’s 17 points and 13 from Cameron Johnson. Maye also had 14 rebounds.
The performance in the first half by the Tar Heels (29-6) was a reversal from Friday’s first-round game against No. 16 seed Iona. North Carolina trailed by five at the break before it eventually won by 15 points.
The energy North Carolina showed from the jump started before the game with a speech from coach Roy Williams in the locker room.
“(He said) basically don’t play like you did in the first half (Friday) when you played Iona,” White said. “Come out ready to play.”
White was near perfect in the first half, making four of the five shots he took, which were all behind the threepoint line. The highlight came with 11:35 left in the first half when White made a step-back move to the right corner to create space between him and the defender, then drilled the triple.
Williams called it a bad shot. “It went in. All of a sudden it’s a great shot,” he said.
The biggest difference in the game, however, was on the glass. North Carolina is one of the elite rebounding teams on both ends of the floor, which showed in its 48-24 rebounding margin over the Pac-12 regular-season champs. Maye was a force in the paint and made a living in the middle of the zone on a few mid-range jumpers.
“Our work on the backboards was something,” Williams said. “Luke, 14 rebounds to go along with his 20 points. I think Nassir gave us a big lift. And I think (those) two kids really showed a lot of toughness today.”
The play that truly put things away was a block by Little that drew oohs and aahs from the majority-carolina crowd. Little followed it up with a two-handed slam to push the lead to 18 with 7:28 remaining.
North Carolina and Washington had met on this stage before, the last time the Huskies (27-9) were in the NCAA Tournament in 2011. Williams remembered John Henson being called for offensive goaltending when the Tar Heels were up just three and the crucial moments that followed.
If he’s asked again in eight years about Sunday’s secondround game, there shouldn’t be just one thing he mentions. North Carolina looked every part of a national championship-caliber team.
It was a performance the Tar Heels would like to repeat — all the way down to grabbing that same blue marker and writing the number 1 while holding the national championship trophy for a second time in three seasons.