UNC makes history in win over Kansas, first over Jayhawks in 23 years originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
UNC’s Caleb Wilson won the head-to-head battle of freshman phenoms on Friday night as the 24th-ranked Tar Heels took down the No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks 87-74.
Advertisement
Wilson led all scorers with 24 points and Henri Veesaar added 20 in a showdown between college basketball powerhouses. Seth Trimble sparked a dominant second half for the Tar Heels, scoring 13 of his 17 points after halftime as UNC erased an eight-point deficit and overwhelmed the Jayhawks with a blistering pace.
The Tar Heels caught fire in the second half, connecting on 18 of their first 23 attempts and finishing 24-of-36 (66.7%) from the field. Trimble’s back-to-back fast-break layups early in the half forced Kansas coach Bill Self to call an early timeout as the Smith Center crowd roared. North Carolina piled up 58 second-half points and led by as many as 16.
North Carolina made significant history with the win over Kansas. This was the first-ever series game played in Chapel Hill going back to 1957.
The two storied program with some shared history have now played in ten cities, which happen to be in seven different states, and this was only the fourth early-season meeting. It was also the seventh non-neutral site game in the 14-game series
Advertisement
The other star freshman Darryn Peterson paced Kansas with 22 points, but the Jayhawks’ offense stalled after halftime, ending their five-game winning streak against UNC dating back to the 2008 Final Four.
Kansas hosts Texas A&M–Corpus Christi on Tuesday. North Carolina continues its homestand Tuesday against Radford.
