**************************************************************************************

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

***************************************************************************************

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Jalen Washington entered North Carolina’s game Tuesday night at No. 13 Virginia having played only 20 minutes on the season.

A highly touted prospect in high school, the 6-foot-10 native of Indiana suffered two knee injuries before arriving at UNC, so the coaching staff proceeded with extreme caution with respect to easing Washington back into on-court activities, and eventually the games.

At John Paul Jones Arena, however, whatever Hubert Davis’ plan was to slowly increase Washington’s playing time moving into the season was scrapped. Pete Nance was out again, and then Armando Bacot suffered a clearly painful ankle injury 1:12 into the contest.

Washington didn’t enter the game at that time, however. Senior Justin McKoy did, but he tired, so Washington was inserted into the lineup at the 12:21 mark.

“Just be ready,” Washington said following the Tar Heels’ 65-58 loss. “The biggest thing is you never know when you’re going to get into the game That moment was one of those examples; just be ready whenever you need to be thrown out there.”

He was more than ready. He met the challenge almost immediately.

A rebound at 11:33 was followed by 1-for-2 from the free throw line at 10:42, then a jumper at 10:13, a dunk at 9:37 that gave the Heels a 12-10 lead, and an offensive rebound and put back at 8:02. Washington’s mark on the game was made.

“Rolling off those screens, and my teammates finding me, and I was able to finish those plays,” he replied when asked what was working for him.

Layups at 4;14 and 2:17, the latter followed by a free throw for a conventional three-point play, gave Washington 12 points in the first half, and 12 of UNC’s final 22 points of the period helping it take a 29-27 lead into the locker room.

No matter what followed over the final 20 minutes, Washington had positively impacted the game giving the Tar Heels life following their star’s scary injury, and they were positioned to finally win at JPJ for the first time in 11 years.

Quite a stretch for a young man who missed the first month of the season, not getting into a game until December 10 versus Georgia Tech, and not logging more than seven minutes in a game, which came last Saturday versus Notre Dame.

Washington was 5-for-10 with 13 points and six rebounds when he arrived at JPJ, and for his efforts versus the Cavaliers, he concluded the evening with (13 points 5-for-11) and six boards.

Disappointed Carolina didn’t get the win, Washington was pleased with the progress he clearly displayed Tuesday night.

“I feel like it’s definitely a testimony to a lot of the hard work having to come back from two tough injuries,” he said. “It’s definitely a blessing to be out there regardless of the victory, which is obviously what we wanted.”

He didn’t learn that Bacot wouldn’t return until UNC Coach Hubert Davis told him he was starting the second half, so even with UVA’s Ben Vander Plas doing a nice job defensively on Washington in the second half, the experience was invaluable on so many levels.

“It just gives me confidence I can play on this level with these players,” he said. “I need to keep racking up experience, keep getting a lot more reps, lot more reps. I haven’t played for about a year-and-a-half now, so it’s a lot of experience. So just keep going and learning.”

At the time of this writing, no word has been released by UNC (11-6, 3-3 ACC) regarding the status of Nance or Bacot for UNC’s game Saturday at Louisville. Regardless of their availability, Washington showed Tuesday he will be ready to go if called on.