PHOTO GALLERY
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Jan. 2, 2011) – Sophomore
Will Felder (Cleveland, OH/Lutheran East Hs) had a game-high 18 points and 7 rebounds, but ACC power North Carolina pulled away in the second half to defeat the Saint Francis men's basketball team, 103-54, in its non-conference finale on Sunday afternoon in front of 17,613 fans at the Dean Smith Center.
The Red Flash started out strong, trading leads on six different occasions with the Tar Heels, but couldn't keep up with a deeper lineup that featured eight players in double figure scoring.
Saint Francis fell to 2-11 overall heading into a Thursday night Northeast Conference battle at Mount St. Mary's. North Carolina improved to 10-4.
“I'm proud of the way our guys battled, but North Carolina is just too good of a team for us to keep up with,” said Saint Francis head coach Don Friday. “From a basketball standpoint, this is sacred ground that we played on today, and we enjoyed everything outside of the win-loss portion of this trip. We'll take some good things out of this game, and we'll be ready for Northeast Conference play.”
Felder scored 12 of his 18 points in the first half and was 8-of-20 from the floor in the game. Sophomore
Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City) had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal, and senior
Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) added 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Freshman Kameron Ritter received his first career start in place of an injured
Anthony Ervin (Chesterfield, Va./Fork Union Military Academy).
John Henson and Dexter Strickland paced eight Tar Heels in double figures with 13 points each. Leslie McDonald and Reggie Bullock had 12, Tyler Zeller added 11, and Harrison Barnes, Larry Drew and Justin Knox had 10 each.
After Zeller made a layup on the opening possession, Felder hit a 3-pointer and Shannon made a layup to give SFU its largest lead at 5-2. Shannon would eventually give the Red Flash a 9-8 lead with 15:08 remaining in the first half, but the Tar Heels would go on a 7-0 run and never look back.
After North Carolina built its lead to as much as 12, junior
Jon Taylor (Bowie, Md./Montgomery College-Germantown) cut it to nine with a hook shot to make it 32-23 with 7:39 to go in the first half. However, the Red Flash made just one field goal over the next five minutes and the Tar Heels closed the half on a 20-10 run to take a 52-33 lead into the break.
The Red Flash never got any closer than 17 in the second half, missing all seven of their 3-point attempts in the frame.
North Carolina shot 59.1 percent from the field (39-of-66), while Saint Francis shot 32.8 percent (22-of-67). The Red Flash made 9-of-11 free throw attempts (.818).
For periodic men's basketball updates on Twitter, follow Director of Athletic Communications Bob Volkert at SFUVolkert.
