CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina poured it on while sharing the wealth during Sunday afternoon’s final tuneup, before the approaching college basketball season arrives in full.
The Tar Heels trampled Johnson C. Smith 127-63 in this exhibition game at the Smith Center, just more than a week ahead of their season-opening assignment.
RJ Davis retuned to the lineup after sitting out UNC’s charity exhibition victory last week at Memphis for precautionary reasons. He supplied 15 points here Sunday, joining seven teammates in double-digit scoring.
Ian Jackson’s 21 points and Ven Allen Lubin’s 18 points topped the Tar Heels, who also got 15 points from Seth Trimble, 12 points and eight assists from Elliot Cadeau and 12 points and seven rebounds from Jalen Washington.
Carolina’s growing lead reached 59-34 by halftime, and crossed the 40-point threshold less than 5½ minutes into the second half. Drake Powell’s dunk off a lob from Jackson increased the margin to 106-56 with 6:24 remaining.
Style points such as those were supplied in bunches, from the bouncy Trimble’s hanging finishes around the rim to Jackson’s high-flying windmill dunk on a breakaway in the second half. That tailor-made highlight occurred moments after the freshman Jackson took off from outside the lane and tried to baptize Javon Anderson of Johnson C. Smith with a one-handed dunk that didn’t connect. Anderson was called for a foul there, as Jackson lost the sneaker on his right foot, all of which prompted wide-eyed looks of disbelief from the Tar Heels, particularly Cadeau.
Ashton Sherrell (16 points) and Asa White (14 points) topped the Golden Bulls, a Division II program.
RJ Davis’s return prompted a shift in Carolina coach Hubert Davis’ starting lineup. The fifth-year senior Davis, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, started alongside Cadeau and Trimble in the backcourt. The 6-foot-7 swingman Tyson and the 6-10 forward Washington joined them as starters, meaning Jae’Lyn Withers moved to the UNC bench. Withers was in the starting lineup for the charity exhibition game last week at Memphis.
Tar Heels turn it on, build first-half lead
Johnson C. Smith hung around during the exhibition game’s first 11-plus minutes. By that juncture, Carolina led 25-23, before cranking things up and turning it on. Trimble’s driving lay-in off a Euro-step move gave the Tar Heels a 12-2 run, and put them ahead 53-29. That attacking bucket from Trimble followed steals and breakaway buckets in transition by Lubin and Drake Powell.
Later, Washington packed six points into the closing 81 seconds of the first half. He capped that personal burst with a dunk in the final seconds, served up by a sweet wraparound bounce pass through the lane from Elliot Cadeau.
Davis (11 points) and Trimble (10 points) paced UNC in scoring during the first half, while Cadeau distributed five assists.
Next on the schedule
UNC embarks on the new 2024-25 season in eight nights, on Nov. 4 against visiting Elon. The Tar Heels lead the all-time series 21-4. The opener will mark the fourth meeting between Carolina and Elon since 1950. The Phoenix, under third-year coach Billy Taylor, has been picked 12th among the 14 teams in the CAA’s predicted order of finish for this season.
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