Tar Heels PG Paige to play Tuesday

North Carolina are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 Tuesday games and the under is 8-2 in the Tar Heels last 10 vs. Big Ten while going 6-2 in their last 8 Tuesday games.

No. 5 Iowa State 84, North Dakota State 64: AMES, Iowa – Abdel Nader scored 21 points and Jameel McKay had 15 to go with a career-high 19 rebounds in the 30th straight nonconference home win for Iowa State (6-0). That had a feel of an old ACC Tournament game; that had the feel of an ACC Tournament game; that had the feel of a NCAA Tournament game.

While they can’t rely on the three ball as much as they did Tuesday night, the Tar Heels with a healthy Paige will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

Paige, who was injured in a November 3 practice, made 4 of 5 three-point shots.

North Carolina (9) suffered a major setback in the preseason when their general Marcus Paige fractured a bone in his non-shooting hand.

As the offense sputtered and hit just two of its last ten shots, Maryland went on a 9-2 run late to pull away. The nerves subsided. His hand felt fine, he said, and he didn’t notice the light protective pad on the back of it, or that his two middle fingers were taped together. Again, it’s not a star rated play for me but making the key numbers of 3 and 4 now winners for the Ravens as a dog means there is some additional value here.

Brice Johnson’s 16 points and Kennedy Meeks’ 12 points gave the Tar Heels (6-1) an inside presence.

Saturday night’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game between the two teams promises to be of a somewhat different ilk.

But like Oklahoma, it’s that early season loss that is holding back the Tar Heels right now, and they have a chance to right that ship and prove to the committee that every game since that SC game wasn’t a fluke.

Maryland committed 13 first-half turnovers and trailed by that margin at one point, but pulled within 41-35 with a late surge thanks largely to Trimble and Sulaimon.

“I think I got the best back court in the country with those two, I really do”, Turgeon said.

Meanwhile, Melo Trimble will lead a very talented and grown Maryland side into Tuesday night’s game, as they go in search of win number seven to start the season. “I like my team a lot better when No. 5 is out there”.

“No, we didn’t think that at all”, Rashad said. Maryland made 12 of 26 3-pointers…. They failed to protect a 24-10 lead in the final 4½ minutes of regulation before winning in overtime at Virginia Tech, then surrendered 514 yards and allowed N.C. State to convert 12 of 21 third downs (57 percent).

UNC: Paige drew a charge on Trimble in transition after a turnover with 3:03 left and UNC up 85-76….

The Tar Heels shot 54.8 percent from the field and had five players with four or more points in the half.

Maryland missed eight of its last 10 shots as North Carolina slowly pushed a 74-72 lead back to double figures after blowing a 13-point first-half lead. Rapper J. Cole, an instate native of Fayetteville, sat courtside.

“That’s exactly what the crowd wanted me to do is make it a personal vendetta and get me out of my game”, Sulaimon said, “so I just tried to totally invest in our team and whatever the team needed me to do to help us win tonight”.

Williams said he wasn’t sure whether Paige would start over sophomore point Joel Berry II or sophomore wing Theo Pinson, though he said he was leaning toward Pinson for now. “There’s a couple of games at home where we just took the night off at home and still won”.

UNC hosts Davidson on Sunday.