Unlike the game last night, the Heels' 123-86 win over the Bahamas All-Star was a bit stiffer test than the previous night. It was another foul happy evening in the tropics which drove Roy Williams crazy both in terms of the officiating and his team's performance. Over two games, UNC saw the opposing team shoot around 100 free throws. Some of that was the officiating and some of it was UNC's failure to play good defense. That will come in time. Roy has said the defensive end of the court is the toughest part for freshmen to learn. It is not like these guys are in great game shape either. Playing pick up games and being tortured by Jonas is not the same as full practice.
Larry Drew did not play so Roy leaned on Kendall Marshall who lead the team in minutes. Marshall had eight assists vs only two turnovers with six points and four rebounds. The rest of the scoring went like this: McDonald 25, Barnes 23, Bullock 17, Henson 16(also had 15 rebs), Zeller 14 and Strickland 10. Yeah, I also did a double-take when I saw Leslie McDonald led all scorers with 25 points. Harrison Barnes had another stellar evening setting the tone and hitting 4-5 three pointers. Overall the Heels hit 10-20 three pointers giving us all hope UNC will have a perimeter game worth a darn.
It appears this little trip was well worth it. All accounts I have seen indicate the team chemistry is great and it little jaunt to the Bahamas only served to give the team an early jump on coming together as a team.