By R.L. Bynum

INDIANAPOLIS — Carolina’s challenges inside without Cameron Fens became glaring against an Indiana team with multiple 7-footers.

As the Tar Heels wait and hope for a favorable ruling that will make the South Dakota transfer eligible, the physical Hoosiers took UNC out of its offense. Indiana kept the Heels off the free-throw line much of the game and dominated the boards.

With or without Fens, Carolina got some tough lessons in a 76–58 exhibition loss Sunday before a partisan Indiana crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse about what needs to change when the games count.

Rebounding had been a point of emphasis all week in preparation for Indiana’s size, and UNC coach Michael Malone said his team fell well short of that goal.

“To be manhandled, to be outworked on the glass was disappointing,” he said. “That’s not just on our bigs. That’s on everybody to make sure we’re rebounding.”

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Malone said the group will stay together and use the loss as a teaching tool before its final exhibition game.

“Tonight we got blown out. We got our butts kicked. We’re going to stay together,” said Malone, who had some fiery messages for his team during timeouts. “Failure is never fatal, but it’s a hell of a learning experience if you’re willing to take that.”

Against multiple 7-footers, Sayon Keita held his own, leading UNC with 12 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and two steals.

But he didn’t have enough help inside and just couldn’t match the physicality of 7–2 Samet Yigitoglu and 7–0 Aiden Sherrill. Indiana outrebounded UNC 53–31, had a 17–7 advantage on second-chance points, and the Heels attempted only 13 free throws.

Malone saw the freshman’s performance as the night’s bright spot.

“I felt that Sayon Keita was a seven-foot silver lining, if you will, tonight,” Malone said. “I thought he was outstanding, and the anchor of our defense.”

Malone added that the shot-blocking big man can’t be asked to cover for everyone else.

“Guy gets beat, he’s there to block his shot, to change his shot, and to cover up a lot of mistakes,” Malone said. “It’s great to have that, but the guys on the perimeter can’t rely upon that.”

Indiana’s defensive switching on UNC’s pick-and-rolls exposed the Tar Heels’ struggles to create offense when their initial action broke down.

“We just had so many examples of us just dribbling too much, pounding the air out of the ball, picking that dribble up, and there’s just some really poor offensive possession,” Malone said.

Matt Able, who rebounded from going scoreless against USC to scoring 11 points and three 3-pointers, saw the same problem.

He attributed it to a team still learning to play together. The Tar Heels struggled to find a second option when Indiana shut down the first.

“After we run our stuff, [and it] doesn’t work [and we] don’t do what we want. What do we do after that?” Able said. “Got a little stagnant. I think that’s just more playing with each other, getting more continuity.”

Jaydon Young, one of three Tar Heels to score in double figures with 10 points, said the Hoosiers’ switching took away some of UNC’s options, but he believed the problem went deeper than scheme.

“I honestly think it was just us not being able to play together a lot just yet,” Young said. “I think that comes with time as well.”

Able said the physical Hoosiers knocked the Tar Heels off their spots, and he pointed to rebounding as the area where the guards can help.

“They were physical, so they were able to bump us off a little bit,” Able said. “We just have to gang rebound.”

On defense, UNC had no answers for Villanova transfer Bryce Lindsay, who came off the bench to pour in 26 points and four 3-pointers.

“He put his fingerprints all over the game,” Malone said of Lindsay. “What you like about him, he can shoot the ball, but he can get his own shot.”

Other than Young and Able, scoring was tough to come by. With Malone’s approach, UNC will have to do better than 7 of 22 from 3-point range.

After scoring 25 points against Southern Cal, Jarin Stevenson was as much of a non-factor offensively as Able and Terrence Brown were in the win over USC.

Isaiah Denis, a sparkplug against the Trojans, sat out the game, listed as day-to-day, with UNC not specifying his issue.

Stevenson scored three points on 1-of-7 shooting as Sherrill, his former Alabama teammate, defended him well.

Malone credited Sherrill with disrupting Stevenson’s night.

“Aiden Sherrill was one of the leading shot blockers in the SEC last year, and he had an impact,” Malone said. “It’s all about finding consistency.”

Brown again played off the ball after being a ball-dominant guard at Utah and struggled with that. Neo Avdalas (6 points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers) almost exclusively started the half-court offense with Denis out. While Avdalas made some nice passes, he also turned it over at other times with high-risk passes.

UNC took a four-point lead in the first 95 seconds as Able hit a 3-pointer. The Tar Heels went 4-for-10 on shots around the basket in the first 12 minutes and Brown fumbled the ball out of bounds in transition when he would have had an easy dunk.

Carolina fell behind by five, 19–12, on a Lindsay 3-pointer with 12:49 left in the first half, but UNC tied it on a Brown jumper and a Young 3-pointer. Indiana took an 11-point lead when a 3-pointer and follow-up shot from Sherrill capped a 15–4 run with 3:47 left in the first half.

After a fiery Malone timeout, a Brown 3-pointer ended a UNC scoring drought of more than four minutes. But the Hoosiers finished the first half with a 9–4 run to take a 41–29 halftime lead.

The lead reached 17 points before an Able 3-pointer 3:03 into the second half started an 11–1 run that included two buckets each from Keita and Avdalas, trimming Indiana’s lead to seven with 13:44 left.

Indiana responded with a 6–0 run to shove the lead back to 14 points on a Darren Harris 3-pointer with 11:02 left. Five straight Young points, including a 3-pointer, cut the deficit to nine.

Carolina got no closer, and Indiana ballooned the lead to 21 when two Lindsay 3-pointers finished a 10–0 run with 6:27 left.

Notes

— UNC gets eight days off before Charlotte comes to the Smith Center for the final exhibition game (ACC Network Extra). The 49ers, with head coach Wes Miller and assistant coach Marcus Paige, lost their exhibition opener 87–67 Friday at Georgia. The Tar Heels have won both meetings with the 49ers: winning 98–83 in overtime in the 1998 NCAA tournament and 75–73 in overtime at the Smith Center on Dec. 12, 1998.
— The 58 points equaled the worst offensive outputs by last season’s team in an 82–58 loss at N.C. State and a 74–58 loss to Michigan State.
— Former UNC assistant coach Brad Frederick was the color analyst for the Tar Heel Sports Network radio broadcast of Carolina’s women’s basketball exhibition victory over Davidson. He’ll also be on the call for the men’s exhibition against Charlotte.
— Carolina went 25 minutes between free-throw attempts before Young went to the line with 10:27 left in the game.
— Maxi Adams was the first man off the bench, replacing Brown.
— The game drew 7,462 fans.
— After going with Carolina blue quarter-zips in the USC game, the coaching staff wore white quarter-zips.

Indiana 76, UNC 58

Date	Time/ scores	Month/day	Opponent/event (final ranks)	TV
		October	Exhibitions
9	W, 88–70	Friday	vs. USC in Greensboro
18	L, 76–58	Sunday	vs. Indiana in Indianapolis
27	7:30	Tuesday	vs. Charlotte	ACCN Extra
		November	Regular season
2	7 p.m.	Monday	vs. Western Carolina	ACCN
6	7 p.m.	Friday	vs. Wofford	ACCN
10	7 p.m.	Tuesday	vs. Wyoming	ACCN
13	7 p.m.	Friday	vs. Georgia	ESPN2
20	9 p.m.	Friday	vs. Marshall	ACCN
23	7 p.m.	Monday	vs. Monmouth	ACCN
27	7 p.m.	Friday	Dick Vitale Invitational vs. West Virginia in Charlotte	ESPN
		December
1	7:30	Tuesday	ACC/SEC Challenge vs. No. 13 Arkansas	ESPN
6	3 p.m.	Sunday	vs. Butler	ESPN2
12	Noon	Saturday	at Georgetown	Peacock
15	7 p.m.	Tuesday	Tobacco Road Classic vs. N.C. State in Greensboro	ESPN2
19	2:30	Saturday	CBS Sports Classic vs. Kentucky in New York	CBS
21	8 p.m.	Monday	vs. The Citadel	The CW
30	4 p.m.	Wednesday	vs. California	ACCN
		January
2	4 p.m.	Saturday	at Boston College	ESPN or ESPN2
5	9 p.m.	Tuesday	at Louisville	ESPN or ESPNU
9	Noon	Saturday	vs. N.C. State	ESPN2
13	7 p.m.	Wednesday	at Florida State	ESPN2 or ESPNU
16	2:15	Saturday	vs. Stanford	The CW
19	9 p.m.	Tuesday	vs. No. 17 Virginia	ESPN
23	Noon	Saturday	at Syracuse	ESPN or 2 or U
26	7 p.m.	Tuesday	vs. SMU	ESPN or ESPN2
30	6 or 6:30	Saturday	Nashville Hoops Showdown vs. No. 5 Illinois in Nashville, Tenn.	ESPN
		February
2	7 p.m.	Tuesday	at Notre Dame	ESPN or ESPN2
6	2:15	Saturday	vs. Georgia Tech	The CW
8	6 p.m.	Monday	vs. Louisville	ESPN
13	5:30	Saturday	at No. 4 Duke	ABC
20	7 p.m.	Saturday	at Wake Forest	ACCN
22	7 p.m.	Monday	vs. No. 24 Miami	ESPN
27	7 p.m.	Saturday	at Virginia Tech	ESPN
		March
2	9 p.m.	Tuesday	at Pittsburgh	ESPN or ESPN2
6	6 or 6:30	Saturday	vs. No. 4 Duke	ESPN
9–13		Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament in Greensboro