Shaky to sensational: Evans sparks UNC’s second-half surge

By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — No player embodied North Carolina’s dramatic turnaround more than junior point guard Kyan Evans.

In the first half of No. 25 UNC’s 87–74 victory Friday night over No. 19 Kansas at the Smith Center, Evans looked out of rhythm. The Jayhawks made a concerted effort to get the ball out of his hands, and he struggled to respond.

In 15 minutes, he missed all four shots — all from 3-point range — had no assists and turned the ball over twice.

Evans admitted the stage played a role.

“First big home game with the crowd, first half was a little shaky,” said Evans, who was playing his 74th career game, but only his ninth against a power conference team. “And then I think we just settled in the second half and just started playing more like ourselves.”

It took only a couple of minutes of the second half for his fortunes to flip, and he was a catalyst to ignite the Heels’ 27–9 run.

— On UNC’s first possession after halftime, Evans took a hand-off pass from Henri Veesaar, then made a terrific pass to the center, who was breaking to the hoop, for a dunk.
— In transition, less than a minute later, Evans made a nice pitch-ahead pass to Seth Trimble for a layup.
— Veesaar got another dunk on a nice lob pass from Evans a minute later.
— But the play that triggered emotions for Evans was a 3-pointer 30 seconds later that gave UNC its first lead of the game. There were smiles and hard claps of joy as he got into his defensive stance.

“He was on point,” Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “He was like, ‘This is our team.’ He got everybody in the right spots. ‘Give me the ball. I’ll make decisions, whether it’s for myself …’ ”

“[Evans] looked very confident in the second half, and that’s what we need from him,” Davis said. “And it was nice to see him settle in and play the way that he did in the second half. We don’t come away with the win without Kyan stepping up in the second half. He was really good.”

After Carolina turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, Davis and the other coaches told the team to eliminate sloppy play.

“They said, we just got to cut down on the turnovers and just start playing more like ourselves,” Evans said. “I think the whole team kind of just came together and said what they had to say. And we knew what it was. We knew what we had to do.

“It was just super positive,” Evans said of the halftime message from the coaches. “Everybody knew what we had to do and was just looking forward to coming out and changing.”

In 17 second-half minutes, Evans scored all 12 of his points and dished out all three assists, making 5 of 7 shots, including 2 of 3 from outside the 3-point arc, while getting two steals and a rebound.

He said his mental approach made a difference.

“I think just being more assertive,” he said. “Just get my space and get to my spots. I think that was just a little bit of just settling in. We were a little sped up in the first half, and then we just settled in the second half and played like ourselves.”

The crowd fed the surge, and Evans loved it.

“We love the crowd,” he said. “They brought us energy. And we had to have a little give and take with them. It’s fun to interact.”

Evans’ impact went beyond his numbers as he helped flip the game around to give UNC a huge early-season victory and its first win over Kansas since 2002.