Chapel Hill gearing us for conference play
This is my 3rd year at UNCA and all 3 years we have played at UNC chapel hill. My first season, I was sitting out due to transfer rules, but I remember watching the game at home with my family and it got pretty ugly. Last year, I thought that we played well and really made some improvements by playing the game and we still lost 93-62. This year we came in with a totally different mindset. We have the experience and they have the number 1 ranking. We traveled to Chapel Hill for only one reason, and that reason was to win the game. Some say we had a nice showing because we only lost by 12, but the loss hurt just as bad as any other. We made some mistakes down the stretch that a team cannot make against them because they are simply to good. Their talent level is very high but it didn't surprise me that I was able to play and be successful at that level. KJ and Kenny also showed that they are a force to be reckon with on any level. It was a very tough place to play and will prove to be invaluable experience going into conference play. I am very confident that if we can be successful on the road in our conference we will win a championship.
Game #1. VS. Liberty @ home. So for anybody who doesn't know the Justice Center is our home court and it is more of a gym than an arena. For years the average fan could walk into the game at any time and sit wherever they pleased and not be hassled. Saturday night was a different story. I was walking into the gym around 310 for a 430 game and there was already a long line waiting to get in the front doors. As players, we have always talked about what it would be like if we had a strong homecourt advantage. Well, we had that Sat night as the Justice Center sold out and turned down over 200 people throughout the game. Those that missed it, missed a very good college basketball game. We started on a 23-8 run but Liberty slowly chipped away at the lead and it was 31-34 at halftime. We continued a pretty close game throughout and we led by as many as 13 during the second half but Liberty once again made a fierce run and actually took the lead 68-67 with a few minutes left. They hit one more field goal and went up 70-67. ---- at this point in the game I had 28 points and was shooting 9-11 from the field. I was in what you may call a shooting zone and my confidence was out of the building. I came off a ball screen and my defender went underneath so I stepped back and drilled a trey ball to tie the game with under 2 minutes to go. We got a couple stops and scored an additional 4 points to win the game 74-70. Ried and KJ hit some big free throws in the last couple seconds and KJ grabbed a key loose ball to lock the win.
We have a very tough High point team coming to Asheville WEdnesday night that are fresh off a win against last year's undefeated conference champ Winthrop. They will be full of confidence and energy and so will we. It will be a tough game and if we can control the pace throughout, WE will win. If we let them dictate the speed of the game it will be in their favor. Also, in the next couple days in practice we need to focus on perimeter defense and being able to rotate when Kenny George is in the game. Penetration is okay because if they want to try and finish over Kenny --- go for it---- but we have to rotate better on the perimeter and limit 3 point looks especially when Kenny is in the game.
