RALEIGH, N.C. – It looked shaky at first when the top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels tipped off against the 16th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Eagles in East Region play of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at PNC Arena on Thursday.
The Tar Heels (29-6) eventually hit the shots they needed, particularly during the second half and overpowered the Eagles (21-14) to post an opening-round 83-67 win.
Brice Johnson’s 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting led five total double-digit contributors to the Tar Heels offense.
With the victory, UNC head coach Roy Williams passed the legendary Coach Dean Smith and earned his 66th win in the NCAA Tournament and moved into second on the all-time list.
Christian Terrell (15 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) and Antravious Simmons (14 points, 8 rebounds) led the Eagles offense.
Following the opening tip, at least for the first three minutes or so, it was a back-and-forth affair with both teams scoring baskets, and FGCU taking an early 11-7 lead.
After that, North Carolina dropped its next seven-of-nine field goals and led 26-18 by the midpoint of the opening half.
However, as quickly as the Tar Heels increased their advantage to 11 points, the Eagles chipped away at it, and eventually pulled within three, trailing 37-34 six minutes later.
UNC made only two-of-12 field goal attempts until the end of the half and held a slim 41-40 lead coming out of the intermission.
FGCU’s 60 percent conversion rate from the field made the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) league and tournament champions look average with their 41-percent shooting success rate.
Johnson’s 11 points led the Tar Heels at that point, and was evenly matched by the Eagles’ Simmons.
North Carolina then came out in a fury to start the second half as Johnson extended a quick 9-3 run that put the Tar Heels ahead 50-43.
Tougher defensive play and quick transition led to more points as Justin Jackson’s three from the left wing gave UNC an 11-point lead for the second time in the game.
Trailing 54-43, FGCU tried to chip away at the sizable deficit the Tar Heels laid out in front of them once again just five minutes into the half.
However, they couldn’t and the UNC lead grew to 17 points following a block by Johnson and a monster dunk from Isaiah Hicks that made it 63-46 with 12:01 to go.
For the game, North Carolina’s offense thrived off the fast break, outscoring the Eagles by a 20-0 margin.
FGCU had only converted 5-of-22 shot attempts in the half,and trailed 73-52 with eight minutes to play.
The Eagles continued to struggle in shooting and turned the ball over, and provided the Tar Heels ample opportunities to take advantage of them.
North Carolina scored 21 total points off such miscues.
Adding insult to injury, FGCU’s inability to score enough to come back for the remainder of the game was highlighted by 10 total blocks the Tar Heels posted against them.
Johnson was responsible for eight of those – a career high.
“I’m sure Coach Williams challenged them at halftime,” FGCU head coach Joe Dooley said.
“We had 14 turnovers. It wasn’t just the turnovers. Some is shot selection. It’s like live-ball turnovers. We ran in there on first sides instead of getting the ball to the third side, getting the ball in reverse, we came down and went early, and that’s when the game really got way. That’s when we stopped running offense. We scored and we tried to score quicker than they scored. That put us in harm’s way. You can’t give them transition. When you shot bad shots and they block it. Next thing you know it’s a three-point play the other way. Some of those shots weren’t turnovers but they should’ve been.”
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UNC 83, FGCU 67
Top Performers
UNC: Brice Johnson 18 pts. (7-11), 7 rebounds, 8 blocks; Joel Berry II 14 pts. (6-14), 6 rebounds; Isaiah Hicks 12 pts. (4-7, 4-4 FT); Justin Jackson 12 pts. (5-11, 2-3 3pts.); Marcus Paige 10 pts. (3-11, 3-7 3pts.)
FGCU: Christian Terrell 15 pts. (4-10, 6-8 FT); Marc-Eddy Norelia 10 pts. (5-12), 11 reb.)
What they said
UNC head coach Roy Williams: “Well, we’re very fortunate, the first half we didn’t play very well at all. It’s one of the worst halves we played all year long. First ten minutes of the second half we were really, really good. It was like a 26-6, or 25-7 something like that run. It was really important to us, to say the least.
Late in the game we started sort of meandering around instead of getting a lot accomplished. After that Brice blocked so many shots around the basket. Needless to say that was huge for us. For us we still feel very good to be here. We’ll try to get this press conference as quick as we can, so you can get what you need and you can go out and watch the second game and so can we.”
UNC’s Brice Johnson (on the mood in the locker room at halftime): “The mood was very, very disappointing. I mean, it was; we’re very disappointed with the way we played. You allow a team like that to shoot 60% in the first half; you can’t help but be mad about that. It’s just an all-around frustrating game. Guys had their head down. It was a bad scene. We had to get the bad taste out of our mouth and be ready to play. We’re fortunate to only be up one, and could have been a lot more the way the game was going.”
FGCU head coach Joe Dooley: “First thing I would like to do is congratulate Coach Williams and North Carolina on a terrific effort. I thought the start of the second half obviously dictated the result. Really proud of our guys. I thought we played as hard as we could.
We had a bone-headed start to the second half but I thought our effort was tremendous and I am really proud of our guys. Looking at some things I think Carolina, looking down the road, they will contend for a national title; they’re so good. I am proud of our guys effort and complement Caroline on their effort.”
FGCU’s Christian Terrell: “We were excited. We played a good half at the beginning and knew we had to keep up the intensity to come up with the win and we couldn’t do that.”
Up next
No. 1 UNC (29-6) vs. No. 9 Providence College (24-10) – Sat., 9:40 p.m.