CHAPEL HILL – Cole Anthony could be on the court with the Tar Heels on Saturday night.

The freshman point guard took part in five-on-five work in practice Thursday, and if he does Friday and feels fine Saturday morning, he will play later that evening when Boston College visits North Carolina for a 6 pm tip at the Smith Center.

Anthony, who missed UNC’s last 11 games after having surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his right knee, is expected to play Saturday when the Tar Heels host Boston College.

“Yesterday, we allowed him to go five-on-five and he probably went 25 to 35 percent of practice…,” Williams said during Friday's press conference. "If he feels alright today, we’ll probably let him do at least that and, if he feels alright tomorrow when we come into shootaround, there’s a probability we’ll play him tomorrow.”

Anthony led UNC to a 6-3 record in the nine game she played, a period that included wins over Notre Dame, in which he scored 34 points, and neutral site victories over Alabama and Oregon. He’s averaging 19.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He scored 20 or more points in four of UNC’s games, grabbed double-digit rebounds in three contests and his various game highs are points (34), rebounds (11), assists (8), and steals (4).

Anthony has worked some on his skills and conditioning, so the five-on-five stuff was new Thursday and there's obvuosuily optimism around the program he will play.

“All the stuff he’s been doing has been one on zero,” Williams said. "He’s shot a lot, I’ve given him some shooting drills, challenged him how long does it take you to make 125 threes. So, it’s not been like ‘you’ve got to shoot outside by yourself.’ He’s really worked it and we’ll just have to wait and see how he feels today.”

Anthony’s possible return comes at a good time for UNC. After suffering a five-game losing streak, the Tar Heels have won consecutive games, including Monday night at N.C. State, and after taking on BC, face a pair of top-10 teams next week. UNC travels to Florida State for a Monday night matchup and hosts Duke on Saturday, Feb. 8.

The Heels are 4-7 in Anthony’s absence, which included a pair of losses to Pittsburgh, a home defeat to Clemson, the first win ever in 60 tries for the Tigers in Chapel Hill, and a double-overtime defeat at Virginia Tech.

The Heels’ four wins were over UCLA in Las Vegas just before Christmas, Yale at home, Miami last Saturday and then at N.C. State.

UNC is 10-10 overall and 3-6 in the ACC but was 6-3 and 1-1 with Anthony.

*Jacob Turner and contributed to this report.