By R.L. Bynum
LAHAINA, Hawai’i — No. 12 North Carolina learned some tough lessons during a frustrating week in Maui that ended with plenty of fight against Michigan State but not enough defense at the end.
Rebounding and defense are still big problems for the Tar Heels, but in their 94–91 overtime loss to the Spartans in the Maui Invitational consolation game Wednesday at the Lahaina Civic Center, they saw freshman Drake Powell’s confidence and role expand.
UNC (4–3) was a few plays away from pulling it out after Seth Trimble’s 3-pointer sent the game into overtime, where the Spartans got to the rim for buckets three times. Coach Hubert Davis has a week between games to diagnose what’s not working on defense.
“This gives [us] time to be able to look and do a deep dive in terms of doing something, maybe tweak, pivot, alter, or maybe even change, because what we’re doing defensively is not sustainable, especially against the good teams,” said Davis, whose Heels play another one in No. 9 Alabama at the Smith Center on Wednesday.
“We’ve always struggled defensively in the first half, but in the second half, we’ve picked it up. Now, with the level of play that has increased, it’s made it even more difficult,” Davis said.”
Davis had plenty of reasons to be frustrated, including picking up his first technical foul as a coach.
“I’m not going to comment on that, but I never use profanity and never show up anybody,” Davis said
More defensive switching and a smaller lineup gave UNC some second-half momentum. However, the Spartans kept the Heels at arm’s length with drives to the basket until the last minutes of regulation as Michigan State scored 50 inside points.
Carolina couldn’t get enough overtime stops after taking a brief lead.
“In those times, you’ve got a tighten of screws in terms of the discipline and details of getting stops,” Coach Davis said.”
Powell made his best case for starting, leading the team in points (18) and 3-pointers (4), both season highs, in a season-high 33 minutes.
“I was very happy with the way that Ian [Jackson] and Drake played,” Coach Davis said, adding that he doesn’t necessarily have more confidence in Powell just because he’s getting more playing time. “I thought they stepped up for us on both ends of the floor, and I was happy with their effort.”
The Pittsboro product said that he would just “keep playing and just growing my game and whatever is asked to me by my coaches, my teammates, I feel like I can do it at a high level.”
The offense wasn’t the problem for UNC, which shot a season-high 47.8% from 3-point range, with five players scoring 3s.
“I think we just shifted our focus on defense,” Cadeau said of how UNC rallied. “I feel like we never had a problem offensively scoring, so it was just a matter of getting stops, and that’s basically all we were talking about, just getting stops, getting rebounds.”
The small lineup made the rebounding issues worse, as UNC only rebounded 14.7% of its misses and got outrebounded (37–29) for the second consecutive night.
The guards were big again. Although Cadeau had 17 points and six assists, he turned the ball over four times and had trouble finishing at the rim, notably on a driving layup attempt late in regulation.
RJ Davis was only 6 of 17 from the floor, but had 17 points, a team-leading seven assists and three steals. Trimble had nine points, four steals, and three assists.
Michigan State took advantage of UNC missing its first nine field-goal attempts to take a 10–2 lead five minutes into the game. Ven-Allen Lubin’s follow shot finally gave UNC a field goal at 14:28.
A Powell 3-pointer, layup, and Ian Jackson dunk cut it to four, but eight straight Spartan points made it 25–13, and it never got below nine the rest of the first half. Jackson’s second 3-pointer with 1:17 left gave the Spartans a 43–34 halftime lead after a Tre Holloman 3-pointer in the final seconds was ruled to come after the shot-clock expired.
After some missteps and two missed layup attempts early (including a dunk try), UNC finally made a run, with Davis and Cadeau layups and a Davis 3-pointer consecutively four minutes into the second half, slicing the deficit to three.
A Trimble three-point play and a Powell transition layup gave UNC a lead, 58–57, for the first time since the game’s first minute. That lasted eight seconds until Coach Davis’ technical foul led to two Spartans free throws.
The Spartans’ lead then swung to seven after eight straight Michigan State points, fell to three on a Lubin dunk with 8:55 left, and then was back to eight after a pair of driving Spartan layups with 4:30 left.
Davis drove for a three-point play, and a Trimble steal off heavy defensive pressure led to a Cadeau 3-pointer with 1:03 left, cutting the deficit to one. Trimble knocked the ball away from Jaden Akins at the other end to give UNC the ball. Cadeau drove past Holloman but missed a driving layup with 19 seconds left.
Holloman hit two free throws with 13.8 seconds before a Trimble 3-pointer tied it with 4.9 seconds left.
UNC got cold, making only 2 of 8 overtime shots.
“I think they just didn’t fall,” Cadeau said. “I thought we took great shots. I thought the right players took the shots just didn’t fall.”
A Powell 3-pointer came after the Spartans jumped out to a four-point OT lead, and two Cadeau free throws gave UNC a one-point lead with 2:44 left. Carolina missed three shots in the next minute after two Xavier Booker buckets, the second with 1:38 left.
After Holloman’s two free throws with 23 seconds left put the Spartans up five, Davis hit two free throws with 15.7 seconds left and the Spartans couldn’t get the inbounds pass in time.
Trimble couldn’t convert on a drive with 12 seconds left. After two Jere Fears free throws with eight seconds left, a Davis 3 with 1.7 seconds cut the lead to three. Carr missed a free throw, then Trimble’s desperation three-quarter-court shot missed.
NOTES — Carolina gets a week off before taking on another challenging opponent, welcoming No. 9 Alabama to the Smith Center at 7:15 Wednesday (ESPN), the Tar Heels’ third top-10 opponent in the first eight games. The Tide (6–1) beat Rutgers in Las Vegas 95–90 on Wednesday night. … Alabama ended UNC’s season in March with an 89–87 victory in Los Angeles in an NCAA West Regional semifinal. … The last time UNC shot at least 50% and lost was on Feb. 15, 2020, against Virginia. … UNC has won eight of the last 10 meetings with Michigan State and leads the series 13–5. … Michigan State avenged a 92–70 Maui Invitational loss to UNC in 1995. … UNC is 23–6 in the Maui Invitational, including 19–5 in Maui.
Michigan State 94, No. 12 UNC 91, OT
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2 OTs
No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s second round
No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
No. 5 North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 56
No. 7 Stanford 78, California 73
No. 6 SMU 73, Syracuse 53
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 (and No. 1-ranked) Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
No. 2 (and No. 13-ranked) Louisville 75, Stanford 73
No. 3 (and No. 10-ranked) Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinals
Duke 72, North Carolina 71
Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Saturday’s championship
Duke 73, Louisville 62
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 17 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 9 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. East Tennessee State | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | 3 p.m. | vs. Ohio State | CBS |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | 8 p.m. | vs. East Carolina | ACCN |
| 30 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Florida State | ESPN2 |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | 2:15 | at SMU | The CW |
| 10 | Saturday | 6 p.m. | vs. Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 14 | Wednesday | 9 p.m. | at Stanford | ACCN |
| 17 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | at California | ACCN |
| 21 | Wednesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Notre Dame | ESPN2 |
| 24 | Saturday | 2 or 2:30 | at No. 23 Virginia | ESPN or ESPNU |
| 31 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | at Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. Syracuse | ESPN |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 3 Duke | ESPN |
| 10 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at Miami | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 14 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Pittsburgh | ESPN |
| 17 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at N.C. State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 21 | Saturday | 1 p.m. | at Syracuse | ABC |
| 23 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 11 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 3 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
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