North Carolina led No. 3 Iowa on the road with less than 10 minutes remaining Tuesday night, but the Tar Heels couldn’t hold on and lost to the Hawkeyes, 93-80, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
UNC registered its highest point total of the season and also shot 47.7 percent from the field while outrebounding the Hawkeyes 47-38. Carolina outscored Iowa 37-24 over the first 10:30 of the second half, but the Heels allowed 17 made 3-pointers, 23 points off 18 turnovers and 21 second-chance points.
However, the Heels did enough positive things to warrant an edition of our 3 Stars following their loss at Iowa:
Garrison Brooks
Bum ankle and all, Brooks led the Tar Heels with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, while also grabbing eight rebounds. He was one of a few UNC bigs who did a solid job of national player of the year frontrunner Luka Garza, too, whom, the Heels held to 6-for-20 from the floor.
RJ Davis
The freshman guard racked up eight assists while scoring 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor, including 2-for-5 from beyond the arc. He had some issues on the defensive end, but more signs of growth and the fact that he was quite productive earn him a spot on here.
Day'Ron Sharpe
Sharpe was tasked with having to defense Garza a lot and he did pretty well, in spite of fouling quite a bit. He also chipped in 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting and pulled down six rebounds in 14 minutes of action. Sharpe was also credited with pair of steals and is second on the team with six through the first five games.
Also receiving votes: Leaky Black, Andrew Platek.