CLEMSON, SC – North Carolina needed to start the second half well Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.
After allowing the Tigers to open the game with an 8-0 run, three days after Duke started with a 13-2 in the first half and 12-0 after the intermission Saturday night, the Tar Heels needed a boost. They required an ignitor of sorts.
That's when the longest-tenured Tar Heel stepped up in their 79-77 victory over Clemson.
After a scoreless first half, Leaky Black scored all eleven of his points over the final 20 minutes, including the team's first six 1:35 into the period. This ensured the Tar Heels (17-7, 9-4 ACC) wouldn’t suffer the same issues that plagued them versus the Blue Devils and in the opening half against the Tigers.
Sophomore guard RJ Davis understands the intangibles Black brings to the table – defense, cohesion, headiness – and was happy to see the unlikely scoring production from his older teammate top open the half.
"I was happy for Leaky," Davis said. "He came out in the second half firing. He came out very aggressive and made a big three in the corner. His presence and his intensity we feed off that."
In the wake of sophomore guard Caleb Love's shooting troubles, which now spans three weeks, Black has averaged 8.5 points 4.6 rebounds while dishing out 19 assists to only four turnovers in UNC’s last six contests. Even more impressive is the efficiency in which Black is doing his damage.
The 6-foot-8 forward is shooting 65 percent from the field, including 53 percent from three, and 82 percent from the free-throw line during the same period. Though Black is a defensive specialist, his offensive uptick hasn't gone unnoticed by junior big man Armando Bacot, as he hopes the hot shooting will rub off on some of his teammates.
"Leaky has been huge for us these last few weeks,” Bacot said. "Him getting his confidence and really just finding himself has been huge for us and the emergence of him. We need to find a way to get everybody going at one time, and that would be great.
“Shout out to Leaky, he did a good job. He had the assignment of (Al-Amir) Dawes today, who killed us in the past, and I think he did a great job on him. And he had to switch over to (Alex) Hemenway, so him being able to play all over the court and score on offense is huge. It definitely shows a lot, and he works his butt off every day, so I'm just happy for him."
Dawes entered the night as Clemson’s second-leading scorer, but Black held him to 10 points on six field goal attempts. Hemenway hit two threes early in the second half before Black took him out of rhythm.
On the other end of the floor, Black isn’t known as a three-point shooter. In his first three seasons at UNC, he converted 26 percent of his threes. However, Black is now shooting 40 percent from three on the year (10-for-25) following Tuesday's win. And the Tar Heels are 7-0 when he knocks down a shot from beyond the arch.
The timeliness of his threes have been big, too.
He nailed a three in front of Carolina’s bench in overtime at Louisville last week, and at Clemson, he drained one from nearly the same spot with 3:57 remaining giving the Heels a four-point lead.
With Black hitting from the field, UNC Coach Hubert Davis is thrilled the senior’s game is rounding out more of late.
"He's been great all season,” said the first-year head coach. "I can't say enough about Leaky and the type of impact this season he's having for our team. Everyone talks about how terrific he is on the defensive end, and he is. But he leads our team in assist to turnover ratio.
“He's an outstanding rebounder. When left open, he makes timely plays. I think he had zero points in the first half, and in the second half, he had eleven points. Not only that big three, but he had a couple of finishes around the basket, the pull-up jumper.”
Black said after the Duke loss the Heels were punched that night and didn't punch back. Part of fighting back is to answer blows by delivering them in return. Scoring does just that. And inside Clemson’s heated hall, Black made sure his team punched back.
His buckets and defense reflected that, and were crucial in Carolina’s needed victory.
