After pounding Temple 91-67 to open the season there is no doubt the North Carolina Tar Heels will remain atop the national rankings.
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Nate Britt matched his career high with 17 points and No. 1 North Carolina gradually pulled away in the second half to beat Fairfield 92-65 on Sunday.
THE STAT SHEET: Alleyne, Oregon’s returning All-American, finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds for her 70th career double-double. She also had five assists.
University of OR coach Kelly Graves’ turnaround project seems to be nicely on schedule, if not ahead of expected pace. Miami had three costly turnovers in the first half: the first was a fumble recovery from a bad snap that flew over sophomore quarterback Brad Kaaya’s head, the second was an interception that was returned for 60 yards deep into Miami territory and the third was a Kaaya fumble deep in UNC territory. That was a good win.
Among the accomplishments: A ninth consecutive win -the longest win streak in a single season since 1914. “I promise you tomorrow the first thing out of my mouth will be, “Coastal Division Champs, ‘ because that’s our goal”, he said”.
Portland shot 32 percent from the field, making only 11 of 31 from 3-point range.
Another win, too, would represent a few history of its own: the Tar Heels haven’t won 10 games in a season since 1997. They’ve eliminated them completely in the past three games, the program’s first such stretch without a turnover since October 1996 during a top-10 season under Brown, according to STATS.
UNC got out to an early lead, 17-9 before a Bando 3-pointer cut the lead to 17-12. “We practiced hard. We felt that when we came into this game that we would be ready to go”. OR increased its lead to 65-59 heading into the fourth quarter.
Kat Cooper, a fifth-year transfer from Boston College, added 13 points off the bench. Alleyne also added a bucket during the run.
While the 3-point shot didn’t go down for Cherry, UNC’s long-range defense was the reason for its downfall.
After OR missed on its possession, Summers stopped-and-popped a two and made it a one-point game.
While the Tar Heel big men should control the game Justin Jackson will look to get on track following a disappointing poor shooting night against Temple.
“We just kept kicking ourselves in the foot”, tight end Christopher Herndon IV said.
An appearance in the conference title game, then, would be the Tar Heels’ first since the ACC in 2005 adopted a divisional format with a conference championship game. “That’s something you’ll be able to tell your grandkids years from now”.
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OR will host Hampton on Thursday in its home-opener, with tip-0ff set for 6 p.m.
