The Rivalry Rages On

Recently, Duke has been dominating UNC in college basketball. Not tonight! The Tar Heels beat the Blue Devils 74-66 for their 8th straight win. Shooting guard Leslie McDonald led the way with 21 points for UNC and point guard Marcus Paige exploded in the second half with 13 points and four assists, guiding the Tar Heels to the sweet victory at home. This year, UNC is 5-1 against ranked teams, which is a pretty good stat for an unranked team. As a Tar Heel fan myself, I was very proud of the win tonight. UNC has done well lately after a rough start to the season. Their free throw percentage was absolutely horrible in the first half of the game (as it has been all season), but they picked it back up in the second half and played with a lot more intensity on defense. Duke’s phenomenal freshman Jabari Parker still managed to get a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but UNC was able to shut down the Blue Devils’ three-point shooting in the win. Duke only made five three-pointers tonight, when they usually average somewhere around ten made per game. The Tar Heels were also grabbing rebounds all game long. They are ranked 8th in the nation in rebounds per game and that stat was true tonight. Those offensive rebounds gave UNC second chances that was probably the main key to the win. This win will definitely be savored for a while, but UNC now has to focus on Wake Forest on Saturday.

Advertisement

Marcus Paige Helps Rebound UNC’s ACC Play

Sophomore point guard Marcus Paige helps UNC avoid their first 0-4 ACC start by defeating the Boston College Eagles 82-71. The Tar Heels are now 11-6 and 1-3 in the ACC. Paige finished the game with 21 points, four assists, two rebounds, and two steals. The product of Marion, Iowa jumped onto the scene as an elite point guard after scoring 32 points against Louisville in the win back on November 24th. Paige is following in the footsteps of some other great point guards who wore number five at North Carolina (most recently Kendall Marshall and Ty Lawson, arguably the greatest point guard UNC has ever had). Paige knows that if he keeps up this level of play, he could be a late first-round draft pick in the upcoming draft, though as of right now he plans on staying for his junior year. He’s been putting up some great numbers for the year, leading the team with 17 points and 4.3 assists per game. He is also averaging 3.6 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. The Tar Heels have been disappointing this year, losing to teams like Belmont and UAB, but they have also been playing great, beating teams like Michigan State and Kentucky. The point guard runs the offense for the team and when he plays well, the whole team plays well. As of lately, Marcus Paige has not been playing well. He’s been only averaging 12.7 points in the last six games before the win against Boston College last Saturday and was also averaging 2.2 turnovers per game. Yet, he is the only consistent player on this Tar Heel team and when he gets going, UNC stands for Unstoppable North Carolina. Free throws have been a big problem for the Tar Heels this season. The team overall has a 61.7 shooting percentage from the free throw line. That’s pretty bad. However, Marcus Paige is leading the team with a 92 free throw percentage. No one else on the team has more than 80 percent! He is also the team’s leading three-point shooter, hitting 35.3 percent from beyond the arc. He’s going to turn into a talented player by the time he reaches the NBA, but for now, he’s got to worry about keeping UNC alive in the ACC.