They completely outplayed visiting North Carolina in every facet, and cruised to an 88-68 victory before an announced sellout crowd of 9,191 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Here is some of what Hewitt had to say about is team’s 10th win in 17 games, and third in six Atlantic Coast Conference contests.
Opening remarks
We emphasized a couple of things coming into this game, rebounding being one of them. And certainly individual matchups, Rashad McCants in particular. And I thought our guys responded very well to those challenges. It’s great to see Ed Nelson out there rebounding the ball the way he did. He made some big plays, got some big offensive rebounds and made some smart decisions after he got those rebounds.
We felt like we have what it takes to close out games better than we have. That’s going to be the challenge for this team from here on out, to consistently close out games.
On if this was Tech’s most complete game
I felt that way. Watching the game unfold, I thought we did a pretty good job. Our free throw percentage was 70 percent, that’s acceptable. Our rebounding was terrific. And our ball movement was pretty good.
On getting Bosh the ball
Just make sure he didn’t get two fouls early in the first half and two early in the second half – that’s all I did.
On defending Rashad McCants
He’s a great player. I don’t think there’s a set plan on him. You’ve just got to make things very difficult for him and keep fresh bodies on him. We got a break that he didn’t get off to a good start. Sometimes that can slow down a good scorer. But believe me, this kid is for real. He’s a great player.
On defending Jawad Williams in the second half
We made an adjustment on how we played the pick-and-roll to cut down some of his middle penetration that was hurting us. I think that helped to keep him in check a little bit.
Senior writer Andrew Jones is in his seventh year with Inside Carolina. He also covers the ACC for the Wilmington Star-News/Morning Star and can be reached via e-mail at: AndrewJones@AM630.net.