By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — For much of the first half, No. 12 North Carolina didn’t match Florida State’s pressure and constant defensive changes with the needed intensity.
By Coach Hubert Davis’ assessment, the Tar Heels only played well offensively “maybe a four- or five-minute stretch” before halftime of their 79–66 victory Tuesday at the Smith Center in their ACC opener.
“Other than that, we just didn’t have any rhythm from an offensive standpoint,” he said. “Their pressure and intensity on the defensive end was more than our will and want to on the offensive end.”
Carolina eventually found a groove, and the catalyst was a familiar source: freshman sensation Caleb Wilson, who made more history and dazzling plays.
“Whenever we need something that’s going to get us back going, it’s really important that I get that done, so I just play hard,” said Wilson, who led UNC (13–1, 1–0 ACC) in points (22), rebounds (16; a season-high), assists (6; tied his season-high) and blocks (2).
Wilson became the sixth player in program history with at least 20 points, 15 rebounds and five assists and the first freshman to score at least 20 points in six consecutive games.
“His personality and his game personality just light up the room,” Davis said, “whether it’s a steal, a rebound, a dunk. It just ignites us. He has that type of effect on this team and the crowd, and we feed off of that.”
The ignition came after a 9–2 FSU run cut its deficit to one with 16:20 left in the game. UNC responded with an 18–3 run, including three Wilson dunks, to take a 15-point lead at 10:29.
Wilson said that one dunk in particular, a tomahawk dunk during that run on a nice pass from Derek Dixon, was fun.
“I was really just happy that we got something going,” Wilson said. “I felt like we were getting stagnant at that point. Throughout the game, Florida State would come back with two quick threes every time we did something. I just felt like that was important to have in the second half and kind of put the team away.”
Wilson led four Tar Heels in double figures, along with Seth Trimble (20 points, seven rebounds, four steals, two assists), Kyan Evans (15 points, season-high five 3-pointers) and Henri Veesaar (12 points, all in the second half, 12 rebounds, a career-high 6 offensive rebounds, three assists).
The Seminoles (7–7, 0–1) packed the paint and dared UNC’s guards to beat them, and Trimble said that the Tar Heels eventually adjusted.
“It made it harder for straight-line drives and whatnot. It made it harder for our bigs to get post catches, and disrupted our offense a little bit,” Trimble said.
Florida State used man-to-man, zone, trapped three-quarter court, trapped full court and did a lot of switching on defense.
“They’ll do a number of different things,” he said. “I felt like it took us time to find a rhythm of what they were doing compared to what we needed to do out there on the floor. I felt like we got better and better throughout the game.”
Trimble fell and got his right elbow taped up in the first half. He took a tumble in the second half after taking a hard foul as Robert McCray V yanked his right arm on a late second-half drive.
He came back and played well down the stretch, and says that the Tar Heels can’t get off to more slow starts as they did against the Seminoles.
More on the win
— Evans shakes shooting slump, says his confidence never wavered
— Hours of film study pay off with stat that made Wilson proudest: 6 assists
— Inside Veesaar’s chemistry with Wilson and how he shook off rough first half
— Heels eye Quad 1 boost at SMU after FSU win drops NET ranking
“As soon as warm-up starts, we have to kind of feel that energy, just create noise, create havoc with each other, because it just gives us that sense of urgency that it’s game time now,” Trimble said.
It took nearly three minutes for UNC to get its first bucket on an Evans corner 3-pointer, and FSU took a 7–3 lead as UNC missed 10 of its first 11 shots. Carolina responded with a 10–0 run, punctuated by Jonathan Powell’s 3-pointer off a nice Wilson pass to take a six-point lead.
Evans scored a pair of 3s during an 11–5 run to give UNC a seven-point lead at 6:34 of the first half. A Jarin Stevenson dunk on a baseline drive off a slick Veesaar pass started a 7–0 run, with a Wilson dunk pushing the lead to 12 with 2:47 left in the first half.
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FSU finished the half with a 9–3 run to trim UNC’s lead to 40–34.
After his first scoreless half of the season, Veesaar scored a layup 11 seconds into the second half, which Davis called “another big play. I felt like that one got him going and into the game.”
Davis had a message to Veesaar at halftime.
“I feel like Coach Davis definitely emphasized, during halftime, I’ve got to be involved,” Veesaar said. “In the first half, he said I wasn’t being aggressive enough, and I only had one shot. I was playing a little bit flat. And then [in the] second half, he kind of got me started with that. So that helped a lot.”
FSU sliced its deficit to 10 as Carolina went scoreless for nearly four minutes before an Evans 3-pointer at 6:34 that started a 7–2 run as UNC went up by 15 with 5:53 left. FSU never got closer than 13 points after that.
“He has size, length, athleticism, so kudos to Hubert, his staff, for bringing a guy like Caleb in,” Florida State coach Luke Loucks said of Wilson. “That’s your prototypical UNC pro that’s going to go make a ton of money playing basketball, and he’s going to help win a lot of games. But I like their team too. I like the big kid, Henri [Veesaar]. He does a great job around the rim. And then their guard play, obviously, is just steady.”
Chauncey Wiggins led Florida State with 16 points and 10 rebounds, with Kobe McGee adding 12 points.
Notes
— Carolina visits SMU (11–2) at 2:15 Saturday (The CW) in the program’s first game on its campus. The Mustangs enter their ACC opener coming off home wins Dec. 21 over Central Arkansas 99–82 and Dec. 28 over Cal State Fullerton 110–63.
— UNC’s NET ranking went down two to 18 after the Quad 3 win and Florida State’s went up two to 126.
— The other Tar Heels with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a game are Billy Cunningham vs. Wake Forest in 1964–65 (35/19/7), Mitch Kupchak vs. Detroit in 1975–76 (30/17/5), James Worthy vs. Detroit in 1979–80 (24/16/6), Joseph Forte at Duke in 2000–01 (24/16/6) and Luke Maye vs. Arkansas in 2017–18 (28/16/5).
— Wilson’s 16 rebounds were the most by a freshman since Day’Ron Sharpe had 16 vs. Miami on Jan. 5, 2021.
— UNC wore throwback early-1980s Carolina blue jerseys for the fifth time in the last 35 seasons. The other games were vs. UConn on Dec. 6, 1991, in the ACC/Big East Challenge, vs. UNCW on Dec. 31, 2013, vs. Duke on Feb. 8, 2020 and vs. UC Riverside on Nov. 17, 2024.
— Wilson has scored in double figures in all 14 games, the third-longest streak by a UNC freshman to start a season, and has 10 double-doubles.
— Wilson and Veesaar both had double-doubles in the same game for the seventh time this season, tying the third-most by a duo in Carolina history. John Henson and Tyler Zeller hold the record with nine in 2011–12.
— Florida State was 12 for 40 from 3-point range and was the first UNC opponent to attempt 40 or more since Iowa took 43 on Dec. 8, 2020.
— UNC has won seven games in a row against Florida State and leads the all-time series 58–16, including 22–4 in the Smith Center.
— Carolina is 59–14 in ACC openers and 65–8 in ACC home openers.
— Roger Ayers was one of the referees for the fifth time in the last nine UNC games.
No. 12 UNC 76, FSU 66
| Team | League | Overall | NET* | WAB* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1 Duke | 17–1 | 29–2 | 1 | 2 |
| No. 10 Virginia | 15–3 | 27–4 | 13 | 11 |
| Miami | 13–5 | 24–7 | 32 | 28 |
| No. 19 North Carolina | 12–6 | 24–7 | 23 | 19 |
| Clemson | 12–6 | 22–9 | 36 | 33 |
| No. 24 Louisville | 11–7 | 22–9 | 14 | 25 |
| N.C. State | 10–8 | 19–12 | 35 | 45 |
| Florida State | 10–8 | 17–14 | 69 | 74 |
| California | 9–9 | 21–10 | 65 | 49 |
| Stanford | 9–9 | 20–11 | 59 | 51 |
| SMU | 8–10 | 19–12 | 39 | 50 |
| Virginia Tech | 8–10 | 19–12 | 53 | 52 |
| Wake Forest | 7–11 | 16–15 | 64 | 81 |
| Syracuse | 6–12 | 15–16 | 83 | 92 |
| Pittsburgh | 5–13 | 12–19 | 109 | 146 |
| Notre Dame | 4–14 | 13–18 | 93 | 121 |
| Boston College | 4–14 | 11–20 | 159 | 217 |
| Georgia Tech | 2–16 | 11–20 | 167 | 210 |
* — Through Sunday games
Saturday’s results
No. 1 Duke 76, No. 19 North Carolina 61
Boston College 77, Notre Dame 69
Clemson 79, Georgia Tech 76
No. 24 Louisville 92, Miami 89
Florida State 92, SMU 78
Stanford 85, N.C. State 84
Wake Forest 80, California 73
Pittsburgh 71, Syracuse 69, OT
END OF REGULAR SEASON
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday through Saturday
| Date | Month/day | Scores | Opponent/event (current ranks) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. 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. 11 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. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | W, 79–66 | vs. Florida State | 13–1, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | L, 97–83 | at SMU | 13–2, 1–1 |
| 10 | Saturday | W, 87–84 | vs. Wake Forest | 14–2, 2–1 |
| 14 | Wednesday | L, 95–90 | at Stanford | 14–3, 2–2 |
| 17 | Saturday | L, 84–78 | at California | 14–4, 2–3 |
| 21 | Wednesday | W, 91–69 | vs. Notre Dame | 15–4, 3–3 |
| 24 | Saturday | W, 85–80 | at No. 9 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 91–75 | at Georgia Tech | 17–4, 5–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 87–77 | vs. Syracuse | 18–4, 6–3 |
| 7 | Saturday | W, 71–68 | vs. No. 1 Duke | 19–4, 7–3 |
| 10 | Tuesday | L, 75–66 | at No. 25 Miami | 19–5, 7–4 |
| 14 | Saturday | W, 79–65 | vs. Pittsburgh | 20–5, 8–4 |
| 17 | Tuesday | L, 82–58 | at N.C. State | 20–6, 8–5 |
| 21 | Saturday | W, 77–64 | at Syracuse | 21–6, 9–5 |
| 23 | Monday | W, 77–74 | vs. Louisville | 22–6, 10–5 |
| 28 | Saturday | W, 89–82 | vs. Virginia Tech | 23–6, 11–5 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | W, 67–63 | vs. Clemson | 24–6, 12–5 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 76–61 | at No. 1 Duke | 24–7, 12–6 |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte | |
| 12 | Thursday | L, 80–79 | Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson | 24–8 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 19 | Thursday | L, 82–78, OT | First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C. | 24–9 |
Photos by Joshua Lawton
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