By Adam Lucas
1. Carolina could never get enough stops to slow down Wake Forest, as the Deacs won a key Atlantic Coast Conference game in Winston. The 98-76 rout marked the first time since the 2001-02 season that the Tar Heels have lost consecutive 20+ point defeats. Wake shot 54.2 percent for the game. After shooting 51.6 percent in the first half, which seemed like a high number, they then came out and shot 57.1 percent in the second half.
2. Wake essentially only got offense from four players, but Carolina couldn’t stop that quartet, and that was enough to win the game. Jake LaRavia: 31 points. Daivien Williamson: 19 points. Alondes Williams: 23 points. Damari Monsanto: 13 points. It was really Monsanto who broke the Tar Heels with three straight three-pointers midway through the second half, but the other three were consistently hard to slow down all night, no matter who the Tar Heels used defensively against them.
3. Carolina’s defense simply wasn’t good enough to stop Wake Forest on Saturday. The Deacons mostly did it by taking the Heels one-on-one (they had just 11 assists on 32 field goals), and it eventually turned into Wake just trying to see what they could do on offense to make a highlight reel play. The final portion of the second half was nearly as discouraging as the first half on Tuesday.
4. Caleb Love is having one of those stretches you’re going to have when you’re a high volume shooter. Love is 5-for-27 in the last two games, and he also has five turnovers and six assists in that span. Because on most nights he isn’t really a creator for his teammates, when he struggles with his shot, it’s just very difficult to get much production from that spot. Like Wake, Carolina’s offense was also one-on-one oriented, as the Tar Heels had just nine assists on 27 field goals. But there’s no question which version was more productive.
5. Although Carolina trailed by double digits at halftime for the second straight game, that deficit felt more manageable than the one at Miami. Carolina shot terribly in the first 20 minutes (30 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from three), got only 12 minutes from Armando Bacot because of foul trouble, and was blitzed 18-0 in fast break points by Wake. And yet, the Heels only trailed by ten. But given an opportunity to make a push in the second half, Carolina never made a run.
6. The one flicker of some momentum came with 15:30 left in the second half, when Carolina had cut it to nine. The Tar Heels forced a rare Wake turnover (they only had eight) and had RJ Davis in the open court, appearing headed for a layup to trim it to seven. But he was whistled for an offensive foul trying to create some more space, and the deficit was double figures for most of the rest of the game. The Tar Heels had zero field goals in transition in the game. Their only two fast break points came on free throws.
7. That almost felt like an early season Roy Williams game in the way that Hubert Davis tried multiple combinations (some by choice, some dictated by foul trouble) in the first half. With Anthony Harris officially unavailable for the rest of the season, there are minutes to be earned. The Tar Heels played ten different players in the first half. The rotation got slimmer in the second half, with the first subs being Puff Johnson and Dawson Garcia at the 11:07 mark.
8. Johnson had a couple very good practices this week and was the first substitute into the game on Saturday. Remember how little actual game experience Johnson has at the ACC level–Saturday was just his 17th career game–and so he is still figuring out where he can get his shot. But he plays with maximum effort all the time, is an active rebounder, and has length that creates some issues defensively. There are more minutes in his future.
9. Carolina attempted to shuffle the defensive look in the second half, as they went zone for a possession. That possession ended in a Wake Forest three-pointer and the zone wasn’t seen again. It looked like the Tar Heels were also supposed to trap near the end of the first half, but someone missed the call and the defense wasn’t executed. They also tried to trap as the deficit ballooned, but it was not effective.
10. Pretty simple: these are three big games coming up in the Smith Center this week. Wake Forest’s fans rushed the court following the win, exemplifying an intensity that Carolina simply wasn’t able to match for 40 minutes. This game was hugely important to Wake. Given the similar places in the standings, it also should have been to Carolina.
11. Reminder that the Virginia Tech game that was postponed back in December has been rescheduled for Monday niight at 8 p.m. in Chapel Hill. Tickets for the original game are still valid, as the Tar Heels begin a stretch of three home games in a span of six days.
12. Armando Bacot had his ninth straight double-double, scoring 12 points to go with 12 rebounds. That ties John Henson’s nine during the 2010-11 season as the fifth longest streak in UNC history.
13. Credit to Wake Forest and Steve Forbes for revitalizing their building. Lawrence Joel was a tomb on a couple of Carolina’s recent visits. There were still a healthy smattering of Carolina fans, and it wasn’t sold out, but the fans who were there were into the game and enjoyed the thumping of their most hated rival.