UNC improved to 13-1 this season with a 79-66 win over Florida State in Chapel Hill on Tuesday. The Tar Heels, coming off an extended break for the holiday, looked rusty in the first half before finding their stride after halftime to pick up a win to open their ACC schedule.
Caleb Wilson was, as he tends to be, excellent. He scored 22 points, pulled down 16 rebounds, and chipped in six assists. Wilson broke the tie with Phil Ford with his sixth straight 20+ point performance as a freshman. Seth Trimble had 20 points and seven rebounds. In a season where the team has struggled at the free throw line, Trimble was responsible for 11 of the team’s 20 charity stripe attempts. He made eight of them. Wilson was 4-5 from the line.
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Kyan Evans found his stroke from long distance, making five of the team’s seven three-pointers. He finished with 15 points but had no assists. Henri Veesaar was held scoreless in the first half and ran into early foul trouble, but he managed to put together a very solid 12 point, 12 rebound game by the time it was all said and done.
Florida State has not beaten a Power 4 team all season, but they kept this one uncomfortably close for most of the game. Carolina had a narrow six-point lead at halftime before FSU came on strong in the second half to pull within one point. The Tar Heels answered with an 18-3 run that all but put the Seminoles to bed. UNC shot 46% from the field in the second half and held FSU to just 32%.
Carolina took advantage of the Seminoles’ nine turnovers and turned them into 11 points. The Heels also feasted in the paint, scoring 42 points there. It was a good thing they did considering the underwhelming 7-29 mark from long distance. Evans and Jonathan Powell were the only two Carolina players to see the ball go through the net from beyond the arc. Powell got extended minutes off the bench, playing two more minutes than Evans did. Derek Dixon did not score but had four assists. Luka Bogavac did not score either and played just 13 minutes despite starting the game.
The win gives Carolina a seven-game win streak to close out 2025. The lone blemish on their record is the Michigan State game that may have played out differently if they’d had Trimble healthy. Still, it’s one of the best starts to the season the Heels have had in years.
Next up is a tougher test as Carolina hits the road to take on SMU on Saturday afternoon.
