Quite a bit about this first half between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Washington Huskies went exactly as expected.
Washington freshman guard continued to show off his potential with a team-high 12 points, including 2-for-3 3-point shooting and an acrobatic scoop layup on a fast break off a steal. UW also got going from beyond the arc as a team with 6-for-13 shooting, including 2-for-3 shooting from Darnell Gant as well.
North Carolina went inside early and often against UW's zone and established and 7-foot post Tyler Zeller finished the half with 12 points. While 6-foot-10 post John Henson didn't shoot well, he got himself to the line five times, which gave he and Zeller a combined nine first half free throw attempts including Zeller's two attempts with four seconds left after UW center Aziz N'Diaye picked up an unfortunate third foul. Harrison Barnes had a game-high 14 point
But with UNC's post presence, perhaps the thing that helped Washington most was their ability to rebound against a team with such size. UW won the rebounding battle 23-17 and got 44 percent of the offensive rebounds available to them compared to UNC's 32 percent. Romar started N'Diaye to give the Huskies more size in the post and it definitely worked with him grabbing a game-high three offensive rebounds and getting his hands on others. However, his foul trouble could have a major impact on the Huskies ability to maintain a rebounding advantage in the second half.