There are no style points awarded this time of year, so it really doesn’t matter much if a team wins ugly or grits out a hard-earned victory. Although we’d prefer to see our team blow out their competition, the chips don’t always fall that way. That was certainly the case in UNC’s first game of the NCAA Tournament against Iona, but the Tar Heels found a way to survive.
Carolina had a fairly abysmal first half, shooting just 32% from the field. Iona, on the other hand. was red-hot from beyond the arc. The Gaels gave the Heels all they could handle, sinking ten threes to put two players in double figures before halftime.