National Basketball Association
North Carolina 102, Monmouth-NJ 65
When: 3:00 PM ET, Sunday, January 1, 2012
Where: Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Officials:
#0 Sean Corbin, # William Covington Jr., # Alan Spainhour
Attendance:
18614
By SportsDirect Inc.
North Carolina welcomed back a former star in Monmouth head coach King Rice – and then promptly showed his team the door, rolling over the visiting Hawks 102-65 in Chapel Hill for its 26th consecutive win at the Smith Center, a new school record.
John Henson led the scoring attack for the sixth ranked Tar Heels (13-2) with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and the win extended North Carolina's current win streak to seven games. Harrison Barnes added 18 and North Carolina had four players hit double-digit points in the record-setting effort. The previous school record for consecutive wins in the Smith Center, 25, was set from 1992-94.
North Carolina hit the 100-point mark for the fourth time this season, improving upon its 87.1 points-per-game average, which was ranked second in the NCAA coming into the game. The Tar Heels shot 54.4 percent overall from the field and 38.1 percent from 3-point range.
Monmouth (2-12) got solid offensive performances from Andrew Nicholas (22 points) and Jesse Steele (17), but was overwhelmed from the get-go by North Carolina, who led by 31 at halftime and never looked back. The game marked the first return to Chapel Hill as a head coach for Rice, who starred at point guard for North Carolina from 1988-91 and is in his first year at the helm of the Monmouth program.
Monmouth fell to 0-19 all-time against nationally-ranked teams and 1-14 all-time versus schools from the ACC.
North Carolina will host Boston College Saturday to kick off conference play, while the Hawks will resume Northeast Conference play at home against Mount St. Mary’s on Thursday.
Top Game Performances
| Monmouth-NJ |
|
North Carolina |
|
Andrew Nicholas 22 |
Scoring |
John Henson 21 |
|
Jesse Steele 9 |
Assists |
Kendall Marshall 11 |
|
Austin Tillotson 4 |
Rebounds |
Tyler Zeller 11 |
|
Mike Myers Keitt 2 |
Free Throws Made |
Kendall Marshall 4 |
|
Andrew Nicholas 2 |
Steals |
Dexter Strickland 2 |
|
N/A |
Blocks |
John Henson 3 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Monmouth-NJ
|
65 |
37.3 |
11-27 |
4-8 |
18 |
22 |
0 |
4 |
12 |
| North Carolina
|
102 |
54.4 |
8-21 |
20-33 |
26 |
51 |
5 |
4 |
13 |