By R.L. Bynum
SALT LAKE CITY — There was plenty to like as No. 25 North Carolina battled No. 8 BYU down to the wire, but too many careless turnovers kept the Tar Heels from pulling off an exhibition upset Friday night.
Seth Trimble’s drive to the rim was denied at the buzzer as the Cougars held on for a 78–76 win before a half-full Delta Center.
Caleb Wilson stole the show for UNC, outplaying BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa in the much-hyped battle between two of the nation’s top freshmen, reminding Tar Heel fans of another standout freshman from two decades ago — Marvin Williams.
Wilson turned in an all-around performance with 22 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and a steal. Dybantsa finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocks and three steals.
Coach Hubert Davis praised Wilson’s maturity and poise.
“It’s not just about his game — it’s every day,” said Davis, who clearly wanted to win rather than experiment because he played his starters for most of the last 10 minutes. “He’s very gifted, but he’s a great kid and a great teammate. His competitiveness is just a joy to coach and to be around.”
Davis saw plenty of other things to be encouraged about, even in defeat, starting with 14 points and eight rebounds from Henri Veesar and a 17-point, seven-rebound game from Trimble.
“I think there are a number of things that I liked out of this — on and off the court,” Davis said. “Having the rhythm and routine of going on the road, traveling, staying in hotels, meetings, shootaround, film — all those things in preparation for the upcoming season — and then playing a quality opponent such as BYU.”
With Luka Bogavac unavailable and the 6–10 Jarin Stevenson starting instead, UNC began with a tall lineup, including 6–2 Kyan Evans, 6–3 Trimble, 6–10 Wilson and 7–0 Veesaar.
Evans’ two early fouls disrupted UNC’s rhythm, and BYU capitalized to go up 18–10. The Tar Heels responded with a 16–5 run, fueled by back-to-back 3s from Stevenson and Derek Dixon and a pair of highlight plays from Wilson. But more sloppy mistakes, “just careless,” as Davis put it, let the Cougars regain momentum.
“Coach Williams always says turnovers are one of two things — selfishness or carelessness,” Davis said after his team commited 19 turnovers, three each from Veesaar, Zayden High and Dixon. “With this group, it is never, ever selfish, but it was just careless. I can’t wait to watch the film. I think a lot of them were one-handed passes, one-handed catches. Simple works. Make routine plays routinely.”
UNC rebounded better after halftime, sparking 10 fast-break baskets in the first nine minutes.
“We can’t run unless we rebound,” Davis said.
Evans, who had five assists and only one turnover in 20 minutes, helped ignite the transition game, setting up Veesaar for a dunk and Trimble for a layup during a 6–2 run that gave UNC a 44–43 lead.
Wilson tied the game at 59 with a follow shot and later helped UNC to a 68–64 edge with two key buckets. But BYU’s Kennard Davis Jr. and Robert Wright III answered late, and UNC’s final possession came up short after a timeout.
“We had two plays,” Hubert Davis said of the closing sequence. “If BYU made one and they were only up by three, we were still going to call a timeout at half court. I had a play for three and a play for two, and we felt very good about the play that we ran. We got our most athletic, most powerful player attacking the basket and just unfortunately missed.”
Trimble said he has been sick in recent days with a little bit of tonsillitis, which wasn’t helped by the high altitude.
“It was a play for me to get downhill,” Trimble said. “We executed it perfectly. I just shied away from contact at the end, instead of going in using the athleticism that I had and trying to create a foul or get an and-one or give a chance for Henri to put back.”
Despite the loss, Davis emphasized the value of the experience.
“You just can’t get that in practice,” he said. “Before we went out, I told them the number one thing I wanted to get from this is to take a big step forward toward becoming the best possible team we can become.”
The coach also lauded the Evans–Veesaar connection in the second half.
“Henri’s dynamic,” Davis said. “He’s good when he has space, really good on empty-side ball screens. We called a couple plays to get him on the roll to the basket, and he has the ability to finish with either hand.”
For a group with 11 new players, Davis saw a foundation being built.
“It felt real,” he said of the game’s intensity. “When in the huddles, it was pretty animated, which I like. Every time it felt like BYU was going to go on a run, we stopped it. That was something I was happy with.”
And even in October, Davis could sense the competitiveness that defines his program.
“Whether it’s shootaround, pickup, camp game — whatever — I want to win,” he said. “There was a lot I was really happy with.”
Wilson wasted no time showing his impact with a terrific pass and a steal in the first two minutes and had three blocks and a team-high 10 first-half points.
But UNC’s point guard situation took a bad turn when Evans’ foul trouble led him to sit for 13 first-half minutes. Derek Dixon filled in for most of the first half, but Trimble, who was a team-low -10 in the first half in a team-high 17 minutes, also played some at point guard.
A 16–5 UNC run got started when Stevenson and Dixon made consecutive 3s after UNC missed its first five. Wilson slammed home a fast-break dunk, Veesaar dunked and Wilson made a difficult turnaround baseline jumper to give UNC a 26–23 lead.
BYU took a six-point lead with a 12–3 run, with two Stevenson turnovers to lead 35–29. During his brief stint late in the first half, James Brown pushed UNC’s first-half turnover total to 11 with two moving picks, and BYU led 39–35 at halftime.
Evans forced a turnover on a savvy play on one end, then made a nice pass to Veesaar for a dunk. Shortly afterward, he made a nice pitch-ahead pass to Trimble for a layup on a 6–2 run to take a 44–43 lead.
BYU went up 51–46 with a 10–0 run that Ritchie Saunders capped with a 3-pointer. A Wilson follow shot tied it at 59 during a 13–8 UNC run. After the Cougars jumped ahead by three, a Wilson tip-in, a transition Trimble drive for a three-point play and an inside Wilson bucket gave UNC a 68–64 lead with 5:12 left.
BYU took a 69–68 lead on a 3-pointer and a free throw by Kennard Davis Jr.
After the teams traded buckets, Stevenson tied it by splitting a pair of free throws with 2:19 left. But Kennard Davis sank another 3-pointer, prompting a Hubert Davis timeout with 1:41 remaining, drawing up a play that produced a driving Veesaar shot.
BYU went up by three again on a driving Robert Wright III layup with 1:18 left, and Veesaar turned it over at the other end. After Wright missed a 3-point attempt, Wilson was denied on a drive with 24 seconds left.
The Cougars appeared to put the game away on a pair of Wright free throws with 22 seconds left. But Trimble made three free throws with 11.8 seconds left to cut the lead to two. Saunders missed two free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining before UNC’s bid to tie or win the game failed.
NOTES — Carolina’s other exhibition game will be at 7:30 Wednesday night at the Smith Center against Winston-Salem State (ACC Network Extra). … The game drew 9,030 fans, with some sections entirely empty. … In games that count, UNC is 5–0 against BYU. This was the first meeting in Utah, following previous meetings in Chapel Hill, Honolulu, Charlotte, Maui and Las Vegas. … The game is part of the Bad Boy Mowers Series, which includes the North Carolina-South Carolina women’s game in Atlanta on Thursday. … Freshman guard Derek Dixon, still recovering from an injury, didn’t play. … Carolina shot better from the floor (46%–42%) and from 3-point range (21%–20%) and outrebounded BYU 40–38. … The name of the free Wi-Fi at the Delta Center was “JordanPushedOff,” and has been for several years, continuing a Utah Jazz beef about the Michael Jordan shot that won the 1997 NBA Finals for his Chicago Bulls.
No. 8 BYU 78, No. 25 UNC 76
UNC lineup combinations
| Score | Time | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Segment score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:00 | Evans | Trimble | Stevenson | Wilson | Veesaar | 6–9 | |
| 6–9 | 17:05 | Powell | High | 0–0 | |||
| 6–9 | 16:42 | Dixon | 0–3 | ||||
| 6–12 | 15:15 | Wilson | 4–5 | ||||
| 10–17 | 12:31 | Young | Powell | Wilson | 0–1 | ||
| 10–18 | 12:25 | Young | Powell | Stevenson | 2–0 | ||
| 12–18 | 11:38 | Stevenson | Wilson | Veesar | 6–2 | ||
| 18–20 | 9:46 | Trimble | 4–3 | ||||
| 22–23 | 7:48 | Dixon | Trimble | Powell | 4–1 | ||
| 26–24 | 6:29 | Stevenson | 3–3 | ||||
| 29–31 | 4:33 | Stevenson | Wilson | High | 2–5 | ||
| 31–36 | 3:36 | Evans | 1–1 | ||||
| 32–37 | 2:52 | Brown | 3–2 | ||||
| 35–39 | :21.0 | Veesaar | 9–6 | ||||
| 44–45 | 15:24 | Dixon | Powell | 5–8 | |||
| 49–53 | 13:10 | Young | 1–0 | ||||
| 50–53 | 13:10 | Stevenson | 3–2 | ||||
| 53–55 | 11:29 | High | 0–0 | ||||
| 53–55 | 10:10 | Evans | Trimble | Stevenson | Wilson | Veesaar | 18–16 |
| 71–71 | 2:19 | Trimble | Powell | 0–3 | |||
| 71–74 | 1:41 | Evans | Trimble | 5–4 | |||
| 76–78 | Final |
| 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 courtesy of UNC Athletics
tarheeltribune.com 
1 Comment