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10th-Ranked UNC Uses Balance To Blow By Marshall
December 22 - Chapel Hill, NC (Sports Network) - Ed Davis led a balanced attack with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Tyler Zeller chipped in with 18 points off the bench, as 10th-ranked North Carolina routed Marshall, 98-61, at the Dean E. Smith Center.
Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson totaled 14 points apiece and Will Graves contributed a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for the Tar Heels (9-3), who bounced back from a 103-90 loss at the hands of Texas over the weekend. North Carolina has lost all three of its games to teams currently ranked in the top five.
Shaquille Johnson led Marshall (9-2) with 16 points and Tyler Wilkerson added 12. Antonio Haymon contributed eight off the bench for the Thundering Herd, who had lost to just Old Dominion before falling victim to an angry, large frontline in Chapel Hill.
North Carolina was off to the races with seven of the game’s first nine points, capped by Davis’ putback just over five minutes in. Marshall, unfazed by its surroundings in the early going, responded and even grabbed a 17-15 advantage on Haymon’s jumper with just over nine minutes to go in the first half.
Marshall hung tough, trailing 35-31 on Wilkerson’s lay-in with just over two minutes left, but North Carolina extended its edge to 44-35 by intermission thanks to Graves’ three-pointer in the closing seconds.
The Thundering Herd pulled within 44-39 in the early stages of the second half, but North Carolina then grew its lead and blew the gates open with a scoring flurry. The Tar Heels scored 18 straight points, mostly on the interior with Davis, Thompson and company. Davis scored the spurt’s final five points with his two free throws opening a 62-39 edge.
The Tar Heels kept pouring it on from there with back-to-back jumpers from Travis Wear and Thompson making it 79-48, and UNC cruised from there.
North Carolina has won all three meetings between the two programs. The schools last met in 1994...The Tar Heels shot 47.9 percent for the contest compared to just 35.9 for the Thundering Herd...North Carolina held a massive 53-34 edge on the backboards and also drained 7-of-11 from beyond the arc.
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