Heels Have Cats In December Rematch

(www.TarHeelBlue.com)

While the Kentucky hoop fanatics in Lexington (KY not VA) might have thought the Wildcats were an Elite Eight caliber team (mostly because like the fans of the Tar Heels, history has created very high, and frequently, unrealistic expectations of an annual deep run in the Big Dance no matter what reality may actually dictate) back in December, if you told Tar Heel Nation that their young team would be among the last eight standing they may well have said:

PUT THE CRACK PIPE DOWN!

That said, here we are.

No doubt, these two young teams have obviously improved dramatically since the start of this season.  Back on Saturday, December 10^th, North Carolina upset(?) Kentucky in Chapel Hill 75-73.  T.A.H. didn’t dedicate much space to the win saying:

Tyler Zeller scored a career-high 27 points and hit the go-ahead free throws with 47 seconds left, helping North Carolina edge No. 10 Kentucky on Saturday in a matchup of two of college basketball's winningest programs.

Zeller scored 12 of the final 16 points for the Tar Heels (5-3) in a game that had five lead changes in the final 3 minutes before Kentucky's Doron Lamb missed a desperation heave for the win from near halfcourt as time expired.

A closer look at the box score shows that UNC was once again led by Z, Henson (13 points) and Harrison Barnes (13 points) while Kendall Marshall played only 10 minutes and 3 assists.

Neither team shot particularly well – Kentucky shot 38% from the game shooting better from behind the arc than in front of it.  The Wildcats made 9 of 21 threes (42.9%) while the Tar Heels made just 1 of 11 (9.1%).

(www.TarHeelBlue.com)

North Carolina (5-3, 0-0 ACC) out rebounded the smaller Wildcats (5-2) 43 to 27 and had nine blocked shots to Kentucky’s three.

Kentucky was led by Brandon Knight with 15 points and Josh Harrelson had seven rebounds.  Henson (12) and Zeller (11) had 23 rebounds combined.

The attendance was 20,695 and the weather was crap – cold with light snow.