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Men’s Basketball Wraps up Nonconference Play at No. 19 North CarolinaCourtesy TribeAthletics.com
Mon, December 29, 2014
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William and Mary men’s basketball team will close out the nonconference slate when it travels to No. 19 North Carolina on Tuesday night. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. from the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., and the game will be televised on the ACC Regional Sports Network and on ESPN3 with Wes Durham (play-by-play) and Mike Gminski (analyst) on the call.
Regionally, the game will be televised on Fox Sports South. In Hampton Roads, fans with Cox Communications can watch the contest on Cox Channel 11. DirecTV users can view the contest on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus via channel 642-1. The game will also be streamed on the WatchESPN app on ESPN3. For complete TV information and availability, click HERE. Tribe fans can also listen into the broadcast on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the broadcast can also be heard over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.
News and Notes – North Carolina and W&M will meet for the first time since the 2010-11 season and the Tar Heels lead the all-time series at 19-3. The Green and Gold’s last victory over UNC came in Williamsburg over the then-No. 2-ranked Tar Heels, 78-75, in 1977. – The W&M coaching staff has a pair of Carolina connections as head coach Tony Shaver (1976) and associate head coach Jonathan Holmes (2003) both played and graduated from the Tar Heel program. – The W&M-UNC game pits one of the countries top shooting teams against one the top defensive teams. W&M ranks 36th nationally in field goal percentage (48.2) and 21st in 3-point percentage (40.2), while North Carolina is 10th in field goal percentage defense (35.1) and third in 3-point percentage defense (25.0). – W&M has not allowed an opponent to reach the 70-point mark this season, and the Tribe ranks 49th nationally, limiting foes to just 59.9 points per game this season. – Senior Marcus Thornton, who is averaging 23.2 points over the last five games, became the sixth Tribe player to score 1,700 career points and the first since 1993 with his 22-point effort at ODU. He ranks seventh in scoring and fourth in 3-pointers made among active NCAA Division I players. – Sophomore guard Daniel Dixon has scored in double figures in each of the last four games and six of the last eight, following his 16-point night against Old Dominion. Scouting North Carolina The Tar Heels possess one of the nation’s top scoring offenses, ranking 17th in the country at 80.9 points per game. According to KenPom.com, UNC is 18th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency. North Carolina is also among the national leaders in field goal and 3-point percentage defense. The Tar Heels are 10th nationally, holding foes to 35.1 percent shooting from the field, while coming in third in country in 3-point percentage defense at 25 percent. UNC also ranks 15th nationally in rebounding margin, outrebounding its foes by 9.2 per game. According to KenPom.com, the Tar Heels are the third-best offensive rebounding team in the nation, collecting 45 percent of their missed shots. Seven different UNC players average five or more points per game, including a trio of double-digit scorers. Preseason All-American Marcus Paige leads the Tar Heels at 13.6 points per game and is the team’s top 3-point threat at 34.2 percent (27-of-79). Kennedy Meeks is second on the team at 13.3 points per game and nearly averages a double-double adding a team-best 9.4 boards per contest. He ranks 13th nationally in field goal percentage at nearly 62 percent shooting and 24th in the country in rebounding. Brice Johnson rounds out UNC’s double-figure scorers at 11.8 per contest to go with seven rebounds per game. North Carolina leads the all-time with W&M at 19-3 and has won the last seven in the series. It will be the first meeting between the teams since the 2010-11 season when the Tar Heels downed W&M, 85-60, inside the Smith Center. The teams also met during the 2010 NIT in Carmichael Arena, an 80-72 UNC victory. The Green and Gold will look for its first win in Chapel Hill, and its first win in the series since downing then-No. 2 Carolina, 78-75, in Williamsburg in 1977. Carolina Connections Success vs. the Power Five – Last season, W&M rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit to pick up a 72-62 win at current Big Ten team Rutgers. Marcus Thorntonled all scorers with 28 points. – During the 2012-13 season, the Tribe suffered a pair of narrow losses against two Power Five opponents, despite halftime leads. The Green and Gold fell at ACC foe Wake Forest, 63-57, but led 30-23 at the half. Later in the season, W&M led Purdue of the Big Ten, 40-39, at the half, but could not hold on before falling to the Boilermakers, 73-66. Thornton had a game-high 21 points against Purdue and added a career-high six assists. – In 2010-11, W&M nearly upset No. 10-ranked Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The Tribe led by four points with five minutes to go, but the Orange rallied by scoring the game’s final seven to pull out a 63-60 win. Syracuse finished the year ranked No. 12 nationally after going 27-8 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. – The Tribe upset a pair of ACC foes who went on to the NCAA Tournament in 2009-10. W&M became the first team to win at Joel Coliseum in November, knocking off Wake Forest, 78-68. Later in the season, the Tribe posted an 83-77 win at Maryland. The Terps went on to earn a share of the ACC regular season title. It marked the first time in the history of the CAA that a team won two road games against ACC opponents in the same season. Dixon Developing into an Offensive Threat Shooting the Long Ball High Defensive Marks Effective and Efficient Offense Thornton Heating Up |