Freshmen Day'Ron Sharpe scored 15 points and Kerwin Walton added 14 points to lead North Carolina to an 82-62 non-league victory against visiting Northeastern on Wednesday night in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Garrison Brooks provided 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Tar Heels (13-7), who played in only their seventh home game of the season, where they are 7-0. Walker Kessler's 10 points along with nine points apiece from Armando Bacot and Andrew Platek aided in North Carolina's balanced scoring attack.
That helped overcome a big night from Northeastern's Tyson Walker, who pumped in 27 points.
Coleman Stucke added 14 points for the Huskies (9-8), a Colonial Athletic Association member playing in only their third game since Jan. 25.
North Carolina led 41-30 at halftime while shooting 44.1 percent from the field. Still, consider that an offensive explosion for the Tar Heels, who had a season-low point total in Saturday night's 60-48 loss at Virginia.
Platek and Sharpe both had nine points at the midway mark as eight North Carolina players were in the scoring column.
Yet after not having a player reach a double-figure point total in the Virginia game, it wasn't until about 11 1/2 minutes remained Wednesday that Brooks with a dunk became the team's first player to do so.
Walker poured in 21 points in the first half on 7-for-8 shooting with four 3s. He was 1-for-7 from the field in the second half.
Walker had 19 of Northeastern's first 21 points.
North Carolina guard Anthony Harris missed the game as the team announced he was in the concussion protocol since Saturday night's loss at Virginia.
This game was put on the schedule Monday after North Carolina had a third Atlantic Coast Conference home game nixed this season because of coronavirus-related issues, the latest coming when Tuesday night's visit from No. 18 Virginia Tech was wiped off the slate.
This was the second meeting between the programs. North Carolina won in a 1991 NCAA Tournament first-round game.
--Field Level Media
Northeastern | North Carolina | |
Tyson Walker 27 | Scoring | Day'Ron Sharpe 15 |
Jason Strong 2 | Assists | Caleb Love 9 |
Alexander Nwagha 5 | Rebounds | Garrison Brooks 13 |
Tyson Walker 7 | Free Throws Made | RJ Davis 4 |
Greg Eboigbodin 3 | Steals | Caleb Love 3 |
N/A | Blocks | Walker Kessler 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Northeastern | 62 | 35.6 | 10-30 | 10-13 | 7 | 28 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
North Carolina | 82 | 42.7 | 5-17 | 13-16 | 20 | 46 | 2 | 9 | 10 |