Maye helps No. 21 UNC beat rival NC St.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The shots kept falling. The basket felt huge. And Luke Maye was so good that he nearly singlehandedly carried No. 21 North Carolina’s secondhalf offense to a road rivalry win.
Maye scored 27 of his career-high 33 points after halftime to help the Tar Heels beat North Carolina State 96-89 on Saturday, getting even for last month’s home loss to the Wolfpack.
The 6-foot-8 junior also had 17 rebounds and spent most of the second half as a one-man show for the Tar Heels ( 19- 7, 8-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), who were less than 48 hours removed from an emotional win against another area rival: ninthranked Duke.
“I really didn’t get to the basket very much the first half and was kind of shooting it a little soft,” Maye said. “So I just challenged myself to get out there and take it to the basket. Once I got some easy ones, I just started shooting and it started falling.
“And when it’s falling like that, you just continue to play and the basketball gods are looking out for you.”
As senior teammate Theo Pinson noted: “Luke was cookin’ today.”
“That was one of those games that you wish you could just watch on TV,” Pinson said. “I mean, that was a performance.”
Maye made 12 of 14 shots after halftime, included one stretch in which he scored 10 straight points and buried a heat-check 3-pointer over Omer Yurtseven with 5:50 left.
His 15 made baskets overall were also the most for a UNC player un- der 15th-year coach Roy Williams. With Maye rolling, UNC’s teammates basically grabbed a handful of his jersey and took the ride.
North Carolina shot 25 of 32 (78.1 percent) after halftime, the highest for any half under Williams and the best in any game since January 2000 (also against N.C. State). And in the end, Maye’s presence opened up things for his teammates to hit several critical late baskets.
The biggest came when Kenny Williams hit a 3- pointer with 1: 13 left and UNC protecting an 85-83 lead.
“They started focusing on him a little bit more,” said Pinson, who had a couple of late layups himself. “And that opened up driving lanes for us.”
Torin Dorn scored 21 points to lead the Wolfpack (16-9, 6-6), who won in overtime in Chapel Hill two weeks ago.
But N.C. State couldn’t complete its first regularseason sweep of the Tar Heels since 2003.