He and fellow freshman John Henson sported new hairdos, dubbed small mohawks, for Saturday's game against Wake Forest and the Tar Heels left Lawrence Joel Coliseum with a 77-68 victory -- just their second win in the past nine games.
McDonald had a breakout game, finishing with a team-high 16 points off the bench and took a key charge at the end of the game, while Henson added nine points, 12 rebounds and five blocks.
"Me and John just decided to get the haircut just because ... I guess it's helped me out tremendously," McDonald said with a grin.
There were plenty of smiles in the UNC locker room after the game and even Coach Roy Williams cracked a joke in the postgame press conference.
And while Williams said the Tar Heels (15-14, 4-10 ACC) handled the close game better than they had in recent weeks, he also acknowledged the Tar Heels had a bit of luck on their side. The Demon Deacons (18-8, 8-6 ACC), who lost their third straight game, shot a season-low 29.7 percent from the field, and their top two scorers, Al-Farouq Aminu and Ishmael Smith, combined for 7 of 28 from the floor for 19 points. The pair totaled 33 points in WFU's 92-69 victory at the Smith Center on Jan. 20.
"We did try to get up on the shooters," Williams said. "The other goal was trying to make sure that we built a wall to stop Ish from getting inside the lane so easily. He still got in there, but those were the goals, and we were fortunate that they missed some."
McDonald scored the final four points of the first half -- he had nine in the first period -- to give the Tar Heels a 32-28 advantage at the break, but at the start of the second half the Demon Deacons tied the score twice and eventually took a 42-41 lead with 13 minutes to play. But it would be WFU's last lead of the game.
The Tar Heels got buckets from five different players, and a pair of Will Graves free throws gave UNC it's largest lead of the game at 64-53 with 4:44 to play.
"We just found that poise tonight," said Ginyard, who had eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds. "We didn't let a 5-0 run turn into an 18-0 run so we were just calmer on offense and didn't make as many marginal plays as we normally do."
But WFU's perimeter shooting and UNC's missed free throws made things interesting in the closing minutes.
L.D. Williams' two free throws put the score at 67-60, and then UNC's Larry Drew II went 2 of 8 from the line as the Demon Deacons got within four with a 1:20 to play.
UNC pushed its lead back up to six thanks to two more free throws from Graves, but Williams scored a 3 on the other end to cut the margin to three with 59 seconds remaining.
Eight seconds later, however, McDonald scored off a fast break layup and then took a charge to give the Tar Heels back the ball with 42.2 seconds remaining. UNC went 4 of 6 from the free-throw line the rest of the way to seal the victory.
"We're just not scoring the ball well enough to win," WFU coach Dino Guadio said. "We only had 11 turnovers and we had a lot of looks at the basket, but we missed 52 shots."
Ari Stewart led Wake Forest with 16 points, while L.D. Williams added 14. The Tar Heels finished the game shooting 40 percent and outrebounded (52-50) an opponent for the first time in three games.
"It feels good for sure," Ginyard said. "We just got make sure we come out ready to play the next game and still understand that winning this game doesn't mean we haven't gotten our butts kicked all year."
The win over the Demon Deacons added more pressure for UNC to win Tuesday's game against Miami. Not only will the Tar Heels be trying to become the second program to reach 2,000 victories on senior night but a win over the Hurricanes would almost guarantee UNC would finish above .500 and earn an NIT Tournament bid.
"It feels like [this win] is a sign," said Graves, who had 13 points. "This late we could've folded but we haven't, and I just feel like it's a sign that we're going to fight on from here."
Post a Comment
