CHARLOTTE — For two seasons, Kenny Williams sat on the bench as the University of North Carolina basketball team made two deep runs in the NCAA tournament to the Final Four, with the last visit ending in a national title.
The first time the Tar Heels embarked on the NCAA tournament in Williams’ freshman year, he was an underclassman sitting deep on the bench buried beneath an even deeper roster. He was on the bench once again last year, not by his own choice, as a knee injury forced him to miss the final 14 games of the season.
Through all that, Friday was the moment that Williams had been yearning for the most.
“I was excited all week to come and play,” he said. “It was my first game playing heavy minutes in the NCAA tournament. So, you know this is what you look forward to growing up. I was a little bit more excited about that.”
The junior guard didn’t disappoint in his first start in the NCAA tournament, after logging eight minutes total in four games during the 2016 tournament trip.
Williams’ hot shooting helped his team pull away in the final 30 minutes from upset-minded Lipscomb in the first round of the NCAA tournament’s West region in Charlotte, in an 84-66 win to set up a meeting with Texas A&M on Sunday in the Spectrum Center.
The junior guard led No. 2 UNC (26-10) with 18 points on 4-of-5 shooting from behind the 3-point line. Williams led all starters in scoring, with all five posting double-figure scoring outings.
“Last year he got hurt and didn’t play all that time period. His freshman year, he was 1 for 13 from 3,” UNC coach Roy Williams said of Kenny. “He likes having success, but he has had a really good year for us all year.”
Three of Kenny Williams’ six made baskets came on assists from Theo Pinson, who tallied seven assists in the game in his role as the main distributor for North Carolina, despite playing as a power forward. Pinson said that while Williams is known for his jump shot, it’s his all-around competitiveness and drive that the senior likes best.
“He’s a basketball player. That’s the biggest thing,” said Pinson, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the game. “People want to just call him one thing and that’s a shooter. … That’s the type of player that Coach recruits that they can do more than one thing.”
No. 15 Lipscomb (23-10) had plans of being the ninth No. 15 seed ever to upset a No. 2 seed as it led by as much as six in the first seven minutes of the game using its 3-point shooting to make the most of Carolina’s mistakes. The Tar Heels turned the ball over eight times in the first 20 minutes to help fuel the Bison’s offense with open looks for 3-pointers and easy drives to the bucket.
After Kenny Cooper hit a 3-pointer to put Lipscomb up 21-15 with 13:02 left in the first half, the shots started to rim out and looks weren’t as easy as the Tar Heels locked in defensively. Opening the game shooting 4-for-8 from 3-point range, the Bison’s hot shooting cooled off over the final 10 minutes of the first half as they missed their next nine from deep.
“It was one of the three things I put up on the board,” Roy Williams said of defensing the 3-point line. “We really wanted them to not shoot a good percentage from the 3-point line.”
The Bison shot 25 percent from behind the arc as team.
With the outside shots not falling, Lipscomb exploited the lack of height inside from Carolina to score 18 points in the paint during the first half.
Behind its defense, UNC came back to take the lead for good with less than four minutes to go in the half. The score was tied at 33 at the 3:43 mark, and the Tar Heels closed out on a 12-1 run to go into the half up nine points as Lipscomb missed its final six shots from the floor.
In the first seven minutes of the first half, Williams scored eight points, capped off with a 3-pointer at the 13:05 mark that pushed the lead out to 16 points. The lead never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
Cameron Johnson showed no signs of the back injury that he suffered at the ACC tournament last weekend as he was an early spark plug for the Tar Heels. His offense helped pace UNC early with nine points, including six of their first 14 points. He finished with 12 points, Joel Berry had 14 and Luke Maye added 10.
But on Friday, it was Williams’ day.
Lipscomb’s Cooper had a team-high 14 points and Rob Marberry added 13 points.
Carolina improved to 34-1 all-time in the NCAA tournament in the state of North Carolina with the victory.
“…I’m willing to see if we can pass a law that says we play all our NCAA games here,” Williams said.
