Heel Tough Blog: East Tennessee State Recap

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On a night where ranked teams around college basketball were being tested by mid-major opponents, the Tar Heels messed around with East Tennessee State for the first half in the Smith Center before running away from the Buccaneers in the second half.

The first half looked very similar to what we saw from the team against USC-Upstate, where the Buccaneers were able to get to their spots on the floor and score the ball while also ripping down offensive rebounds and converting them into second chance points. With 2:15 left to go in the first half, the Tar Heels led by just two before they would close the half on a 9-3 run that would extend the lead to eight at the break.

Like we have seen often this season, the Tar Heels came out of the halftime break with a much better effort on both ends of the floor and the result was a dominant half that put plenty of distance between the two sides. Similar to how they finished the first half, the team went on a 9-2 run to begin the half sparked by a couple of nice defensive plays and would extend the lead to 15, a lead they would never look back from. They would later go on a 15-0 run that would extend the lead from 12 to 27, officially putting the game away. All 15 players would touch the floor for Carolina in the second half as the team picked up their tenth win of the season to advance to 10-1 on the year with a 77-58 win.

Leading the way for the Tar Heels on the night was big man Henri Veesar, who had a career-high 26 points on 10-11 from the field and 2-3 from beyond the arc to go along with eight rebounds. Right alongside him was front court mate Caleb Wilson, who finished the night with 20 points on 6-12 shooting and 7-10 from the foul line while also ripping down eight boards. This combination absolutely dominated in the second half, scoring 24 of the team’s 39 points in the half while others chipped in miscellaneously. The best night from the guards came from Kyan Evans who hit a pair of important threes in the first half and shared the ball incredibly well in that half as well with a team-high six assists. Fellow point guard Derek Dixon has seven points on 1-2 from the field, but hit all four of his free throws and pulled down three rebounds in just 14 minutes of game action.

With the victory, the Tar Heels are now 10-1, marking their best start under Hubert Davis through 11 games and their best start as a program since 2017-18.

1. Defensive Intensity Changed This Game: For a third straight half, the pace of the game was being dictated by the Tar Heels' opponent, but that changed quickly last night like it never did on Saturday. The Tar Heels began pressuring the ball to start the second half and, as a result, sped the Buccaneers up, leading to poor shot choices and some important turnovers. Credit to Hubert Davis for getting into his guys in the locker room after that lackluster first and credit to these players for cranking up that intensity to swing the game quickly into Carolina’s favor.

2. Henri Veesar Continues Strong Start: When the team got Veesar out of the portal, there were some high expectations set for him, but it’s hard to think many saw this coming for him. Last night was just another example of how dominant he can be at times on both ends of the floor and he deserves a lot of credit for holding the team in the game in a first half that wasn’t great outside of what the frontcourt was providing. He showed the ability to stretch the floor last night to go along with his dynamic interior game that throws so many different things at you as an opposing defense and East Tennessee State had no answers. Right now, with the way that he is playing, few will.

3. Caleb Wilson Sparks Team Again: If you look back to the first half, Wilson’s dunk wasn’t technically the beginning of the run before the half, but it felt like that was the play that really energized the team. The young freshman wasn’t perfect last night, but when they needed him to make plays, he was able to. In the second half, it was all about his ability to get to the charity stripe, as he got there six times and made five of them while drawing countless other fouls. With his seven free throw makes last night, he has now made at least five free throws in all eleven of the team’s games thus far, showing how effective he has been at getting to the line and then making shots when he gets there. His 20-point performance also keeps him in the lead for the best point per game average by a freshman in program history, ahead of Tyler Hansbrough’s freshman year numbers.

4. Jonathan Powell Proves Valuable Again: We have been talking a lot recently about playing Powell more and last night was another great example as to why. It wasn’t quite the big night scoring that you got from on Saturday, but he was so good defensively that it made up for his lack of scoring in the second half. As pointed out by Terrence Oglesby on the broadcast, Powell was tremendous all night off-ball, making it difficult for the Buccaneers to find anyone that he was guarding throughout the night. That defensive effort was a big part of why the Tar Heels were able to flip the game and is just another example of why Powell deserved the extra playing time he got last night, including starting the second half for the team, and should play extensive minutes moving forward.

5. Point Guards Do Enough: It wasn’t the most productive night that you are going to see from this pairing, but they made plays when they had to. Kyan Evans hasn’t been scoring the ball great in the last two games, but he has eleven assists to zero turnovers in the last two games. Derek Dixon wasn’t nearly as impactful as he has been in some of the other games this season, but he did hit a three and got to the free-throw line in the second half. They weren’t perfect, but they made the plays that they had to for this team on Tuesday night.