North Carolina Tar Heels vs College of Charleston Cougars Basketball Recap

North Carolina 74 – College of Charleston 69

Coming into this game in Chapel Hill, College of Charleston Cougars had a 3-3 record in the series. Cougars coach Bobby Cremins coached against UNC for 18 seasons in the ACC with Georgia Tech, making 9 NCAA Tournaments, reaching the Final Four once.

And oh, there was just one other remotely important detail about this Carolina-flavored clash between two old hands from the ACC: Charleston won last year’s meeting between the two teams in South Carolina. There was a genuine sense of intrigue heading into this contest, especially since Charleston led a hungry young Maryland team on the road earlier this season before losing by one point, 75-74, on a last-second shot in College Park. Observers wondered if Cremins’s crew had another upset in store at the Dean E. Smith Center, otherwise known as the Dean Dome.

It almost happened… but almost doesn’t count in college basketball.

No. 25 ranked North Carolina has been struggling early this season, losing twice. Coach Roy Williams commented this week, after an uninspired victory over UNC-Asheville where the Tar Heels committed 20 turnovers that he just hoped to “live through this season.” Clearly, UNC has a long way to go, but for one night, it lived through a rough outing to avoid a second straight loss to the charges from Charleston.

The Tar Heels had a 28-27 lead at the half after leading by as many as 6. John Henson led the Tar Heels with 9 points. Leslie McDonald had 7 points for North Carolina, hitting both of his shots from beyond the arc. The Cougars were led by Trent Wiedeman and Andrew Goudelock with 5 points each.

> Browse a selection of Collegiate Snuggies & NC Tar Heels Merchandise online!

Willis Hall and Goudelock led a furious start to the second stanza for the Cougars to go up by a much as 5, but an up-tempo pace set by Carolina exhausted the overmatched Charleston squad, and Carolina took the lead and stretched it as many as 10 before winning by a final score of 74-69.

John Henson paced the Tar Heels with 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting.  Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald contributed 9 points each, and Harrison Barnes with 9 rebounds and Tyler Zeller with 10 rebounds finished the game with 8 points apiece.

Charleston’s Goudelock, averaging 23 points per game this season, with 24 against the Tar Heels in the Cougars’ surprise victory over the Tar Heels last season in Charleston, shot just 2 of 8 in the first half, but found his stroke after the break and finished with 28 points to lead all scorers.  Trent Wiedeman with 12 points and Donovan Monroe with 11 rounded out double-digit scorers for Cremins’s squad.

North Carolina has a difficult stretch coming up this week, playing at Illinois in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge on Tuesday, and hosting Kentucky on Saturday. It will need a much bigger and bolder effort to win just one of those games and improve its chances of returning to the NCAA Tournament after missing out last March.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer