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CHAPEL HILL — How deep will Coach Hubert Davis go into his bench this season? He may have provided a hint on Friday night. In No. 20 North Carolina’s 77–52 home victory full of crowd-pleasing highlights Friday at the Smith Center over UC Riverside, only six players played more than 15 minutes — the five starters and freshman point guard Elliot Cadeau — before multiple late substitutions.
Why don’t Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson have spots on an NBA rosters? With performances like they produced on Thursday night, it’s surprising that no team has signed him. Jackson went for 33 points and six 3-pointers with six rebounds and four assists. Teammate Pinson had a double-double with 21 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks on Thursday night in their Texas Legends’ 136–129 road loss to the Osceola Magic.
Justin McKoy put up his first career double-double in another Hawaii win Thursday night and Dawson Garcia produced good numbers again for Minnesota, but in a heartbreaking first loss after blowing a 20-point second-half lead.
No. 20 North Carolina has one more tuneup against an overmatched opponent before the challenges ramp up significantly starting next week in the Bahamas at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
It was another night of career-highs for former Carolina players. On Wednesday, it was Georgetown’s Dontrez Styles and Rutgers’ Destiny Adams with big games — although both were in losses — one night after Justin McKoy scored a career-high 15 points in his Hawaii debut.
It hasn’t taken long for Cameron Johnson to find his form after missing seven games with a left calf contusion. In his third game back in the Brooklyn lineup, Johnson scored 20 points and three 3-pointers with five rebounds, two assists and three steals as the Nets rolled to a 124–104 home victory Tuesday night over the Orlando Magic in a Group C game of the NBA In-Season Tournament.
Justin McKoy’s long wait for his debut in paradise was worth it, scoring a career-high 15 points — nearly as many points as he scored last season at Carolina — Tuesday night, when Puff Johnson finally made his Penn State debut.
In the afterglow of hitting the big free throws to help Arizona win at Duke on Friday night, Caleb Love had a good all-around game and passed the 1,500-point plateau Monday for the Wildcats, who jumped nine spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll.
After opening the season with two home victories, North Carolina fell one spot to No. 20 in the latest AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll on Monday, when Armando Bacot earned Lute Olson National Player of the Week honors.
Coby White, Cameron Johnson and Day’Ron Sharpe had solid Sunday games in victories on a day when Leaky Black scored his first NBA points and Pete Nance put up a double-double in the G League.
CHAPEL HILL — Watch and hear what Hubert Davis, RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram had to say after No. 19 North Carolina’s victory over Lehigh.
By R.L. Bynum CHAPEL HILL — Armando Bacot made the case before the season that this group of Tar Heels … More
No. 19 North Carolina got a pretty good challenge in its opener on Monday night, but that probably won’t be the case on Sunday. The Tar Heels (1–0) welcome Lehigh to the Smith Center at 2 p.m. (ACC Network) after pulling away from Radford on Monday for an 86–70 victory.
Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson, two of three UNC alums who play for the Texas Legends, had big games on opening night in the G League. Jackson, in his third stint with the Legends, scored 26 points and Pinson added 21 but the Legends lost at home Friday night to the Oklahoma City Blue 108–95
DURHAM — The familiar No. 2 was back in Cameron Indoor Stadium but in an unfamiliar uniform. After three trips and two wins wearing Carolina blue, senior guard Caleb Love wore a dark-blue Arizona uniform with red trim Friday night. Despite some of the heat he got last season from UNC fans, he reminded the world of his love for UNC by scrawling “Tar Heel 4L” (Tar Heel for life) on one shoe that featured a light-blue Swoosh.
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