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Justin Jackson has put up a lot of big numbers in the G League since joining the struggling Texas Legends on Feb. 24 and did that again on Thursday night, finally in a victory. He had that sweet jump shot going that Carolina fans know so well, and put together an outstanding overall game.
If the St. John’s 66–64 First Four victory Thursday night over Purdue is any indication, Carolina will have to play excellent perimeter defense to beat the Red Storm, which features a familiar star. St. John’s (23–8) earned the right to face the No. 20 Tar Heels (21-10) in a 4 p.m. first-round game Saturday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, with a victory in the same arena by scoring an NCAA tournament school record 11 3-pointers.
Without Kyrie Irving and Luca Dončić, the Dallas Mavericks needed some big performances to win at San Antonio, and Reggie Bullock came through with his best game of the season. Bullock, a 10-year veteran who turned 32 Thursday, produced his first career double-double with 20 points, six 3-pointers and a career-high 13 rebounds.
CHAPEL HILL — The first month of the season has been a power trip for No. 18 North Carolina, which is hitting home runs at a school-record pace and piling up runs. That continued Wednesday with three home runs, as the Tar Heels scored double-digit runs for the ninth time and at least 14 for the sixth time. UNC collected 17 hits in a 16–2 rout of High Point on a chilly evening at Boshamer Stadium for its third win in a row.
Cameron Johnson is producing the consistent effort that most expected from his first season as an NBA starter. But, instead of doing it for a solid NBA title contender in the Phoenix Suns, it’s for a rebooted Brooklyn Nets team trying to find a rhythm. Johnson, traded from the Suns to the Nets along with Mikal Bridges at the trade deadline, scored 23 points and three 3-pointers Tuesday night. But Brooklyn, which got 34 points from Bridges, blew a 10-point halftime lead and lost at Oklahoma City 121–107.
No. 18 North Carolina had it all going right after a bumpy start, as the Tar Heels rolled to a 16–3 road victory over Charlotte on Tuesday.
Dontrez Styles, who still is deciding whether he’ll return to Carolina next season, said Tuesday that Coach Hubert Davis told the team after the NCAA selection show that the Tar Heels wouldn’t accept an NIT invitation. “It was the coach’s decision,” Styles said during his weekly “Tuesdays with Trez” segment on “The Bryan Hanks Show” on WRNS 960 AM in Kinston.
The shuffling of the Carolina men’s basketball roster is under way. With several reserves getting little playing time, some of them figured to move on. That started Monday when Tyler Nickel and Justin McKoy entered the transfer portal. Nickel has three years of eligibility left, and McKoy would play a fifth season as a graduate transfer.
CHAPEL HILL — The NCAA women’s basketball tournament selection committee egregiously underseeded North Carolina for the second consecutive season, but it’s just the latest of a few curious decisions the program has endured in the last 20 years.
CHAPEL HILL — A year after the NCAA selection committee denied North Carolina’s women a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and the perk of hosting most thought was deserved, the Tar Heels were again underseeded. Most projections had the Tar Heels a No. 4 seed, but they will be a No. 6 and play first-round games in Columbus, Ohio, with a trip to Seattle following that if they get two wins in Columbus.
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