FAU entered the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Sunday afternoon intent on giving the No. 11 Tar Heels a run for their money. Head coach Mike Jarvis said his squad planned on competing against North Carolina. They managed to do just that in the first half of play but ended up falling to UNC 80-56 in the season opener.
The Owls opened up the Maui Invitational with a game plan focused around their perimeter game. They jacked up 29 3s (open or not) and made only nine. This played into UNC’s hand, as they capitalized on the long misses from downtown with a relentless up tempo pace, amassing an abundance of fast break points.
Owls’ center Dragan Sekelja, coming off a 21 point, 12 rebound performance in the preseason game against Lynn, finished with nine points and two rebounds in this contest.
The real story of the game was the transition game of both squads. The Tar Heels were extremely effective at exploiting the Owls lack of fast break defense. The difference was the Owls simply couldn’t compete at the pace North Carolina played with. Long misses coupled with poor transition defense was a recipe for disaster.
The Tar Heels kept FAU’s offense in check, holding them to a horrid 28 percent from the field. The Owls actually managed to shoot better from beyond the arc at 31 percent.
Despite the statistics, FAU kept it competitive in the first half with timely 3s by freshman point guard Stefan Moody, Sekelja and Greg Gantt, who had back to back triples which tied it at 19, at the halfway mark of the first half.
Gantt, the senior starter, seemed to be the only Owl not fazed by the big stage of the game, putting up a team high 18 points on 7 of 17 shooting including four 3s.
With 7-foot Sekelja only grabbing two boards, the Tar Heels dominated the glass, snatching 49 boards opposed to the Owls 34.
However, the Owls went into the half down only by eight. The score was highlighted by North Carolina missing 10 of 14 free throws in the first half and going 12 of 27 (44 percent) for the entire game.
Moody was held in check going 3 of 12 from the floor (two 3s). Senior forward Jordan McCoy had a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Owls tried to get back to the inside game by dumping the ball to Sekelja in the post. However, two misses by Sekelja to start off the second half led to James Michael McAdoo getting some easy dunks, including an alley-oop, to open up the game to a double-digit lead for the Tar Heels.
At the 13 minute mark, UNC had a possession resulting in two offensive rebounds followed by a block on the defensive end. This led to a fast break off the block, creating a 13 point lead 53-40.
With an energized crowd finally behind them, the Tar Heels didn’t turn back.
The Owls travel to Starkville, Miss. to play Mississippi State on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 8:00 p.m. to continue the Maui Invitational.
