Justin Jackson hits six threes, Monmouth picks up three technicals, and everyone gets biscuits.
For the fourth time this season, the Tar Heels topped the 100-point mark in a win over Monmouth. Justin Jackson was the star of the show with 28 points, including six three-pointers. Not to be completely overshadowed, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks also had themselves very strong games.
UNC closed out the first half a bit cold from the field. Monmouth made the most of the Heels’ drought and made a buzzer beater from near half court to pull within nine at halftime. Carolina shot 43% from the field for the game, including 35% from three and 72% from the line. Monmouth is not a pushover team, and the Heels played well to beat them by as many as they did.
The weirdest part of the game was a two-minute span in which Monmouth picked up three technical fouls. The chippiness was evident and the refs were having none of it. The third technical came against King Rice after he voiced his disapproval of the previous calls.
In a game in which Joel Berry was very, very quiet (aside from his technical free throw shooting), the Carolina big men picked up the slack. Meeks started the game very strong and finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Hicks fell a rebound shy of a double-double with nine rebounds to go along with his 15 points. Tony Bradley chipped in ten points off the bench.
UNC shot an incredible 46 free throws in the game. That should tell you all you need to know about the foul situation on the night. There were a total of 72 free throws shot in the game.
Kanler Coker was the late-game hero, putting UNC over the 100-point mark with free throws to earn the crowd the right to $1 biscuits at Bojangles. The loudest the Smith Center crowd got all night was in the pursuit of biscuits, which I can’t imagine will make Roy Williams too happy. Alas, the people got what they wanted.
UNC is back in action on Saturday as they open ACC play against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
