Ken’s High Five: Anatomy of the Tar Heels’ shading of UNLV

Saturday afternoon, the North Carolina Tar Heels held off the Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels, 79-73, as they dominated the first 15 minutes of the game before surrendering the lead and then eventually pulling away late for the win.  The following are five key ways that the Heels were decisive in the win. 1.) North Carolina scored 13 points off 11 UNLV turnovers in the first half; 18 off 17 turnovers for the game.  UNLV was stagnant and not moving on offense early and it allowed the Tar Heels to set the pace for the game.  P.J. Hairston nailed a three late in the first to give the Tar Heels a 34-20 margin. “They beat us up last year,” noted UNC senior Dexter Strickland of The Rebels’ 90-80 victory in Las vegas last season, “We felt like we had a great chance to reverse that and I just think that we came out with energy and ready to play, we did what Coach wanted. Coach was hyped up about the game and so were we.” 2.) Vegas out-rebounded UNC, 38-33 for the game.  The key was North Ca...