CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina breezed through its first assignment to start the new college basketball season, ahead of a much more considerable challenge awaiting at the end of the week.
The No. 25 Tar Heels trampled Central Arkansas 94-54 in Monday night’s season opener at the Smith Center, behind 22 points from Caleb Wilson.
The freshman forward topped five scorers in double digits, as UNC rolled and never trailed, while building a lead that grew to 60-25 early in the second half. Kyan Evans (15 points, six rebounds, five assists), Henri Veesaar (14 points, 10 rebounds), Seth Trimble (12 points) and Luka Bogavac (10 points, five assists) added productive contributions for the Tar Heels, who piled up their largest margin of victory in a season opener since November 1975.
Carolina won its season-opening game for the 21st season in a row, and picked up its 24th straight victory in a home opener.
Bogavac’s months-long eligibility case finally reached an 11th-hour resolution, before Carolina took the court here on Monday night. So the international guard suited up, after sitting out UNC’s exhibition games during the preseason, and came off the bench to a warm welcome.
The Tar Heels entered as whopping 31½-point favorites on opening night to tip off coach Hubert Davis’ fifth year in charge of the program. Next up, a blue-blooded showdown arrives in four days when No. 19 Kansas visits on Friday night, a spotlighted matchup during the first week of the season.
Central Arkansas, under coach John Shulman, marked the first of eight mid-major opponents on the non-conference portion of UNC’s regular-season schedule. The Bears have been picked to finish next-to-last in the 12-team Atlantic Sun Conference, and arrived here rated a lowly 346th out of 365 teams in Ken Pomeroy’s college basketball database. That’s the lowest KenPom projection for any Carolina opponent this season.
Cole McCormick’s nine points paced the Bears, who didn’t put a player in double figures. The Tar Heels forced Central Arkansas into 17 turnovers and 22 fouls, and the Bears shot just 31.3 percent from the field (20-for-64).
Tar Heels Run Out to Big First-Half Lead
UNC had sprinted ahead 51-23 by halftime, after Jaydon Young and Kyan Evans knocked down 3-pointers during the final 1:47 prior to intermission. Evans put together a sharp opening half of the new season with 12 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. He connected on 3-for-4 from 3-point range, too, sinking several clean looks.
Meanwhile, Caleb Wilson came out of the gate at his spring-loaded best. The freshman forward had 12 points on five dunks during the first half. He started 4-for-4 from the field on four big dunks in the game’s first 3½ minutes. Evans fed him on pair of early lob dunks, before Wilson hammered a huge put-back dunk over a crowd in the lane for his fourth jam.
Later, Wilson took off on a baseline drive and dunked to push the Tar Heels ahead 42-15. Carolina was operating on a 21-2 run at that juncture. About 90 seconds of game time earlier, Evans popped out on the wing and drilled a 3-pointer to cap a burst of 18 straight points for the Tar Heels, who rode sizable scoring waves such as those throughout the first half.
Camren Hunter, the top weapon for Central Arkansas, went 0-for-5 from the field during the first half, underlining the Bears’ struggles. UCA had accumulated as many turnovers (10) as makes from the field (10) by halftime. And the Bears were called for 13 fouls in the first half, too.
Next on the Schedule
Carolina plays host to No. 19 Kansas and freshman sensation Darryn Peterson on Friday night, a blue-blooded showdown that makes for one of the spotlighted matchups in college basketball here during the opening week of the new season. It’s the return game in the home-and-home series between these tradition-rich programs, with the Jayhawks set to visit Chapel Hill and the Smith Center for the first time ever in men’s basketball. Kansas faces Green Bay on Monday night in its season-opening assignment.
UNC and Kansas have squared off 13 previous times. The Jayhawks lead 7-6 in the all-time series, by virtue of their 92-89 defeat of the Tar Heels last November at venerable Allen Fieldhouse. That marked UNC’s fifth straight loss to Kansas, after the previous four occurred in the NCAA Tournament. Prior to this five-game slide in the all-time series, the Tar Heels defeated Kansas in the 1993 Final Four, on their way to claiming the national crown, and the 2002 Preseason NIT. Twenty years later, the 2022 NCAA championship game was hanging in the balance when these programs met. Kansas overcame Carolina’s 15-point halftime lead that night in New Orleans to prevail 72-69, and claim coach Bill Self’s second national title.
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