By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — It took one half for North Carolina to take control of the boards and, by extension, the game.
Once the Tar Heels started limiting Wyoming’s second shots, they pulled away to a 76–63 win Tuesday night at the Smith Center.
“I challenged our manhood at halftime,” Coach Michael Malone said. “We had guys that had just played a whole half of basketball with zero rebounds or one defensive rebound.”
Better rebounding, Sayon Keita’s inside presence, Terrence Brown’s drives to the rim and defense, as well as perimeter shooting from Isaiah Denis and Matt Able all contributed to Carolina’s breakaway second half.
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Wyoming collected 15 offensive rebounds before halftime but managed only four after the break, producing just two second-chance points in the second half. Malone’s message reached a group that had spent too much of the opening half watching the ball instead of putting bodies on the Cowboys.
Malone called the team soft.
“I’m thankful that he did say that because we took it to heart and we made sure it didn’t happen again,” said Able, who scored at least three 3-pointers for the seventh time in his career.
Wyoming missed 25 shots in the first half and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds (60%). In the second half, the Cowboys got only four offensive boards on 22 missed shots (18.2%).
It was a Sayon Keita block party, as he swatted six Wyoming shots and collected eight rebounds to go with 13 points and three steals. Five of his rebounds came on the offensive end, giving Carolina extra possessions as it tried to establish the physical presence Malone demanded.
Keita also had six deflections, according to Malone, making his impact felt beyond the shots he sent away.
“He blocks everything around the rim,” Denis said. “Practice is tough. I get him a few times with the high glass layups, but it’s tough to shoot over him.”
Brown and Denis led five UNC players in double figures with 14 points apiece (a career-high for Denis), with Maxi Adams adding 13 and Able 11.
Denis and Adams supplied 27 of Carolina’s 30 bench points. For Denis, whose injuries limited his opportunities last season, the performance rewarded the work he had put into earning Malone’s trust.
UNC (3–0) trailed for the first time in the regular season when Wyoming scored the first six points, and the Cowboys rebounded 11 of their first 16 misses.
Malone said the Cowboys arrived with a clear plan and the numbers to back it up, leading the nation in offensive rebounding and averaging 19 second-chance points.
“That’s what they do. They came in here and had us on our heels. They were hitting us first, and we were reacting. I don’t want to be a counter puncher. That’s not my style,” said Malone after Wyoming finished with advantages of 43–37 in rebounding and 15–11 in second-chance points.
Two Adams 3-pointers ignited a 12–1 run as UNC took its first lead, 12–11, on a Denis layup at 12:03 of the first half. Brown layups began and ended a 7–0 run for a 19–15 lead at 8:24.
“He gives us a scoring punch,” Malone said of Adams. “He knocked down a couple of threes right when he got into the game in the first half, and he’s relentless on the glass. He’s the one guy that goes every time, and he gets you extra possessions.”
Wyoming led by one after an 8–0 run as UNC went scoreless for more than five minutes.
But a steal and dunk from Able, followed by his alley-oop pass to Jarin Stevenson for a dunk, started a 9–4 run that Denis ended with a 3-pointer, and UNC led 31–29 at halftime.
Malone went through the roster at the break, challenging players individually and the team as a whole. Brown, who grabbed three defensive rebounds in the first half, was the only player spared that criticism.
After the Cowboys (2–1) briefly tied it, Brown scored UNC’s first eight points after halftime as the Heels ripped off a 15–4 run capped by an Able 3-pointer with 14:59 left to take an 11-point lead.
Brown repeatedly attacked the basket, playing with urgency because of the slim halftime lead.
“Coming out of halftime, we’re up two, and everything that was on my mind is I don’t want to lose this game at all,” he said. “So, I’m gonna go out here and do whatever I can to win the game.”
Brown said Malone leaned on him early in the half by calling plays for him.
“He called my number a few times, so I just took advantage of the opportunity as much as I could and tried to get to the rim as much as possible,” Brown said.
Able said the locker room message was about pride, and that the Cowboys hadn’t done anything unusual to get the early edge.
“It’s a pride thing at that point because they’re not doing anything crazy,” he said. “They’re not hitting crazy shots, but they had like 15 more shots than us in the first half, so it was just a matter of wanting it more and locking in. I think we did that.”
A Jaydon Young 3-pointer in a 9–4 run shoved the lead to 13 with 9:40 left. Two Able 3s sparked a 12–2 run that put UNC up by 18 with 3:19 remaining.
Brown’s contribution extended to the other end, where his ball pressure impressed Malone after Neo Avdalas encountered foul trouble. Even when Brown’s shots weren’t falling, his effort gave Carolina something it could count on.
“He’s going to find a way to impact the game,” Malone said. “This means too much to him.”
Wyoming pulled within eight with 1:06 left when Nasir Myers’ short jumper capped a 10–0 Cowboys run. But UNC scored the last five points.
Carolina had answered Malone’s halftime challenge, but the next step is making that response last an entire game.
“Now the challenge is to do it much closer to 40 minutes,” Malone said. “And it’s not on just our big guys, but we need everybody in that fight.”
Notes
— UNC is back home on Friday for the fourth of six consecutive Smith Center games to start the season, facing its first power-conference opponent in Georgia (3–0). Both won home exhibition games against Charlotte: Georgia 87–67 on Oct. 16 and UNC 89–82 in overtime on Oct. 27. The Bulldogs, who lost an exhibition 82–80 on Oct. 23 at Clemson, have home wins over N.C. Central (78–62) on Nov. 2, Presbyterian (91–77) on Nov. 6 and Florida Gulf Coast (80–72) on Monday.
— Carolina had nine turnovers, marking the first time since turnovers became a statistic in the 1979–80 season that the Tar Heels have had 10 or fewer turnovers in the first three games.
— After 54.3% of UNC’s shots in the opener against Western Carolina were from 3-point range, that percentage was 34.2% against Wofford and 34.5% against Wyoming.
— UNC has won 31 games in a row when it holds the opponent below 40% shooting from the floor.
— Carolina has won both meetings with Wyoming, with the earlier victory 90–74 in the 2003 NIT at the Smith Center under Coach Matt Doherty.
— Keita became the first Tar Heel with six blocks in a game since Walker Kessler swatted away eight Notre Dame shots on March 10 in the 2021 ACC tournament. It’s the second-most by a freshman behind Kessler. Armando Bacot, Ed Davis and Rasheed Wallace (twice) also swatted six.
— In UNC’s 600th Smith Center game, it earned its 14th consecutive home win over a non-conference team and its 21st straight home victory.
UNC 76, Wyoming 63
UNC lineup combinations
UNC play types
UNC shot charts
UNC season statistics
| Date | Time/ scores | Month/day | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | Exhibitions | |||
| 9 | W, 88–70 | Friday | vs. No. 21 USC in Greensboro | — |
| 18 | L, 76–58 | Sunday | vs. Indiana in Indianapolis | — |
| 27 | W, 89–82, OT | Tuesday | vs. Charlotte | — |
| November | Regular season | |||
| 2 | W, 80–72 | Monday | vs. Western Carolina | 1–0 |
| 6 | W, 109–70 | Friday | vs. Wofford | 2–0 |
| 10 | W, 76–63 | Tuesday | vs. Wyoming | 3–0 |
| 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. 19 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. No. 24 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 No. 10 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. 6 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. 3 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. No. 10 Louisville | ESPN |
| 13 | 5:30 | Saturday | at No. 2 Duke | ABC |
| 20 | 7 p.m. | Saturday | at Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 22 | 7 p.m. | Monday | vs. No. 17 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. 2 Duke | ESPN |
| 9–13 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament in Greensboro |
Photos by Joshua Lawton
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