Henri Veesaar scored 25 points and Caleb Wilson scored 22 to power No. 17 North Carolina to an 87-84 win over visiting Wake Forest on Saturday night in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Wilson pulled down 12 rebounds while Veesaar grabbed nine, and the dominant posts missed just one shot apiece from the floor (17 of 19) and also combined for seven assists and three steals for the Tar Heels (14-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). Jaydon Young added 12 points and Seth Trimble chipped in 10.
Another impressive duo powered Wake Forest (10-7, 1-3), as Juke Harris and Nate Calmese each scored 28 points apiece. Calmese also had nine assists and shot 7 of 11 from 3-point land.
UNC led wire-to-wire and went up by as many as 15 points midway through the second half following a 13-4 run. That surge was highlighted by Trimble tossing a lob to Veesaar for an alley-oop slam.
But Wake finally woke up and responded in an attempt for a late-game comeback. The Demon Deacons broke off a 17-3 run to make it a one-point game, 75-74, with about four minutes left to play. All but five of Wake’s points during that stretch were scored by Calmese, who swished a pair of 3-pointers during the crucial run.
The Tar Heels, however, never let the Demon Deacons get closer to the lead. With under 90 seconds to play, Veesaar caught a lob from Wilson, pump faked and then threw down a reverse jam, putting UNC ahead by four points. Calmese sank another 3-pointer, fading away in the corner, with 6.2 seconds left to cut the deficit to one, but the Tar Heels’ Jarin Stevenson sank two free throws and Calmese’s game-tying shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
UNC scored 21 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds and outscored Wake 40-30 in the paint.
The victory for the Tar Heels was their 500th inside the Dean Smith Center, which opened in 1986, and they pulled it off in front of a sold-out crowd of 21,750.
–Field Level Media
