Jan. 31, 2007

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CHAPEL HILL -- Playing in one of its toughest matchups of the season so far and the second contest of the year, the North Carolina junior varsity men's basketball team struggled early in the first half to keep up with Asbury College. North Carolina, shooting 47.1 percent from the field, mounted a strong effort in the second half and managed to cruise with relative ease to their seventh consecutive season win, 90-63.

Patrick Moody, who scored 21 points and had 8 rebounds, explained the Tar Heel's strong performance in the second half.

"Even though [Asbury] didn't back down at all," said Moody, "We just hit shots in the second half very well."

North Carolina started the second half with an 8-2 run. Asbury responded with a 6-0 run of its own, but was unable to keep up after consecutive shots from JB Tanner and Patrick Moody increased the lead to 17 with 10 minutes to go. The Eagles slowly clawed back down the stretch, but the Tar Heels reached a game-high lead of 29 points with 1:13 left in the game.

Going into the game, a strong Asbury team was only one of several worries for North Carolina's head coach C.B. McGrath.

"We had been working on just getting back into shape and conditioning," said McGrath. "And we had to play a disciplined team that really made us work for shots."

"We got fired up in the locker room at halftime," said guard James Gallagher, who had 8 rebounds and 8 points. "We realized we had to play with intensity if we wanted to compete.

The Dean E. Smith center, which had earlier been outfitted for ESPN's live GameDay broadcast that morning, contained a large crowd for a JV game. Over 500 fans from both schools cheered on individual players and teams with home-made signs and chants.

The Eagles shot for 38 percent from the field overall, hitting 24 out of 63 field goals. They made 7 out of 24 three-point attempts. Jon Ensign led the Eagles in scoring with 21 points, followed by Jordan Noble with 13.

JB Tanner led all scorers with 23 points. Point guard Jack Wooten led the team with 4 assists and scored 7 points.