Long Island came into its matchup with North Carolina facing down a severe size disadvantage in the front court. Without a player over 6-foot-7, the Blackbirds were powerless to stop the Tar Heels inside game, giving up a combined 84 points to North Carolina’s trio of forwards. Despite the disadvantage, Long Island hung around for much of the game, using an up-tempo offense to score buckets in bunches.
Give Long Island credit: The Blackbirds hung around and gave North Carolina a scare, at least momentarily. But with the frontcourt size, North Carolina was able to score at will, running away from Long Island down the stretch in a 102-87 win.
Tyler Zeller and John Henson each finished with new career-highs, scoring 32 and 28 points respectively. Harrison Barnes rounded out the scoring trio, finishing with 24 points. The other five players to log significant minutes for North Carolina scored just 18 points.
Long Island pushed the tempo and it showed in the statistics. The Blackbirds took 85 shots, hitting 31 of them. It was one of the most up-tempo games you’ll ever seen, with the number of possessions at or above the century mark.
UNC moves on to face the winner either Washington or Georgia in the round of 32. The Huskies and Bulldogs tip it off just after 7 p.m. from Charlotte, live on CBS. Check out our Washington Vs. Georgia preview to get prepared.
The rest of the East region bracket can be found below and a full 2011 NCAA Tournament bracket can be found at SB Nation.
EAST REGION
No. 1 Ohio State def. No. 16 Texas-SA, 75-46
No. 8 George Mason def. No. 9 Villanova, 61-57
No. 5 WVU def. No. 12 Clemson, 84-76
No. 4 Kentucky def. No. 13 Princeton, 59-57
No. 3 Syracuse vs.No. 14 Indiana State
No. 5 Xavier vs. No. 11 Marquette
No. 7 Washington vs. No. 10 Georgia
No. 2 UNC vs. No. 15 Long Island, 102-87
For the full television lineup, check out our March Madness schedule. Be sure to check back in with our NCAA Tournament results StoryStream for updates throughout the day.