North Carolina Beats Western Carolina 80-72 in Malone Coaching Debut

North Carolina beat Western Carolina 80-72 on Monday night at the Smith Center. The win gave Michael Malone a victory in his first game as a college head coach, and it was harder than the building expected.

Matt Able scored 18 points on 6 of 10 shooting to lead the Tar Heels in their season opener. Terrence Brown added 14 points, Neo Avdalas 13 and Maximo Adams 10 off the bench. North Carolina never trailed, led 39-30 at halftime and still could not shake an in-state opponent from the Southern Conference until the final two minutes.

Jaxon Prunty scored 18 points for Western Carolina and Jaeden Roberts added 17. The Catamounts cut the lead to one point late in the second half and outrebounded North Carolina 41-32, with a 13-7 edge in offensive rebounds. What they could not do was shoot. North Carolina held Western Carolina to 33.9 percent from the floor, 20 of 59.

The run that settled it

Roberts fouled out with 5:57 to play. That moment keyed a 13-2 North Carolina run, Field Level Media reported. Able's driving layup pushed the lead back to 10, and Avdalas hit a three pointer with 1:31 left to make it 77-64. The game was closed from there.

Malone, an NBA championship head coach with the Denver Nuggets, coached his first college game since he was an assistant at Manhattan from 1999 to 2001. He used a 10 man rotation. Former North Carolina coach Roy Williams congratulated Malone on the floor after the game with what appeared to be a ceremonial game ball.

Why it matters

Season openers against smaller in-state schools are supposed to be simple. This one exposed a rebounding problem North Carolina will have to fix before the schedule hardens, and it gave the Catamounts a performance they can build a season on. For Malone, the debut win counts the same as a blowout would have.

What happens next

North Carolina hosts Wofford at the Smith Center on Friday night. Western Carolina, in its third season under head coach Tim Craft, goes home with a loss and a blueprint: it pushed a top program for 38 minutes.

A lead that took work

North Carolina had not led at halftime in any of its three exhibition games, a point Malone had raised after the final preseason outing, according to Sports Illustrated's game observations. Monday fixed that, at 39-30, but the second half brought the scare. Early in the half Avdalas dunked over a Catamounts guard to give North Carolina its largest lead at 43-30, Field Level Media reported. Western Carolina still cut the game to one possession and then to one point, which is why the closing run, and not the halftime lead, is the part of this opener North Carolina will remember.