That is more like it.
The only real issue was the first half defense. College of Charleston shot 46% in the first half and hit 8 of 18 three pointers. Those made threes helped Charleston stay close until a small run at the end of the half gave the Heels a 12 point halftime edge. Charleston did a great job with spacing and created a lot of open looks with good ball movement. The Cougars also took 59% of their FG attempts in the first half from beyond the arc which is all bad since it is a lower percentage shot. The problem is Charleston hit their threes giving them a foothold in the game. On the offensive side UNC was far more aggressive while hitting their shots, especially in transition. Roy also shook the rotation up some shuffling in Will Graves, Ed Davis, Bobby Frasor and Larry Drew earlier than normal then afforded them more playing time than usual.
In what could be considered a reverse of the trend seen in the previous few wins, the Heels ratcheted up their game in the 2nd half on both ends of the floor paving the way for the complete destuction of the Cougars. The mode of operation for the Heels since the Michigan State game has been to play as though they were bored in the 2nd half and keep the lead in the 15-20 point range. Not this time. UNC opened the half with an 11-0 run to make it a 23 point lead then built on that to eventually run it out to a 40 point margin. This all happened with the starters playing only 21-24 minutes. The second stanza also included some lockdown defense from the Heels to the tune of Charleston only shooting 21% from the floor and worse than that from three point range. Overall it was an impressive game for the Heels, pretty much the kind of bounce back you would expect.
The question is how does the team move from this performance to taking on Wake Forest on the road Sunday night? One would hope they would use this as a springboard to build momentum really get on a roll as they move toward the Duke game in February. The danger of this group getting complacent is a real possibility unless the last loss finally was a big enough kick in the pants to move them to that upper echelon of performance on a consistent basis.
