UNC crumbles against VCU, makes early March Madness exit

GREENVILLE, S.C. — By the time VCU took its first lead of the overtime period, UNC’s Henri Veesaar could hardly run up the court. He jogged to a stop at the midcourt March Madness logo and dropped his hands to his knees before Seth Trimble tied the contest with two free throws.

Both teams were reasonably gassed with 50 seconds left in the third period. The Rams, after all, had come back from down 19 points in the second half. The Tar Heels, meanwhile, only made one substitution in the entire second half.

A late 3-pointer from Terrence Hill Jr. put VCU up by two points. With North Carolina’s season on the line, Veesaar missed both free throws (the second one an intentional miss) to help seal UNC’s 82-78 season-ending loss.

Veesaar led the way for UNC with 26 points and 10 rebounds. But once again, it wasn’t enough.

North Carolina led by as many as 19 points with 15 minutes remaining in the game. But VCU refused to go away. The Rams cut their deficit to two with a 16-3 run over a five-minute period late in the game.

The Rams’ trio of guards — Nyk Lewis, Michael Belle and Hill — scored all of VCU’s points in that stretch, exploiting late help from UNC, dicing their way to the rim and drawing fouls in the process. Their quickness off the dribble put the Rams in a back-and-forth affair with North Carolina for the final four minutes — until Hill’s layup in the final seconds tied the game at 75-75.

That pushed the game to overtime, where VCU edged out UNC.

With the win, the Rams (28-7) move on to play either No. 2 Illinois or No. 14 Penn — depending on which team wins the Thursday nightcap in Greenville. North Carolina (24-9) ends its season and the college careers of seniors Trimble and Elijah Davis come to a close.

Here are a few takeaways from the game:

UNC’s forwards carry early load, Dixon provides spark

VCU entered Thursday night intent on stopping Trimble’s driving and explosive downhill ability. The Rams succeeded in frustrating the senior guard early, as well as UNC’s guard corps as a whole.

After a brief 8-0 Rams run, North Carolina tied the game at 13-13 behind the play of its forwards. Jarin Stevenson and Veesaar combined for nine of those points, while Zayden High had four points on back-to-back layups off the bench.

But Dixon — playing against his former high school teammate, Lewis — hit two 3s and Luka Bogavac sank a jumper to help spark a UNC run. Trimble capped off the 10-2 Tar Heels surge with a layup.

Trimble gets downhill, cues avalanche

North Carolina extended that early run into a roughly seven-minute stretch that saw UNC outscore VCU 19-3.

Trimble recorded two assists during that run to go alongside six points — all layups or dunks in transition. And that doesn’t include other plays he set up by attacking the basket, such as a second-chance dunk for Veesaar after Trimble missed a finish at the rim.

Veesaar led all scorers with 13 points in the first half, but Trimble’s impact surpassed his seven points, four assists and two steals he had at the break.

Veesaar shows up and shows out again

If Veesaar needed any more fuel for this postseason matchup — which is doubtful to anyone who paid attention to his career-high 28-point, 17-rebound performance against Clemson — he may have gotten it from a comment that VCU forward Lazar Djokovic made in a Wednesday press conference.

“At the end of the day, we play against UNC, but we don’t play against the brand,” Djokovic told reporters. “We play against the players wearing those jerseys. I think we have a really great chance tomorrow to win it.”

Trimble could be heard repeating a similar line to his teammates before the game, yelling that VCU wasn’t respecting the UNC brand. He implored the Tar Heels to go “be the brand.”

Veesaar clearly heard his fellow captain.

There were still 12 minutes remaining in Thursday night’s contest when the Estonian native reached the 20-point mark — draining a triple over Djokovic. The VCU forward had just hit a triple of his own, and had plenty to say to Veesaar after that shot.

The two European players jawed back and forth throughout the game, with Veesaar capitalizing plenty of big Tar Heel plays by pointing to the “NORTH CAROLINA” on his chest.

As it turned out, Djokovic got the last laugh.

Rams’ guard play wears UNC down late

The longer the game dragged on, the hotter the Rams seemed to become.

That was particularly true for VCU’s Hill, who had 20 points in the second half and was crucial in sparking his team’s late run.

Lewis and Belle each recorded eight points in the second half.

VCU appeared to be the quicker team for long stretches in the second half, while the Tar Heels only made one substitution after halftime — bringing in Jonathan Powell.

The Rams, meanwhile, went eight deep in the second period.

UNC’s fatigue appeared to show in many ways. The Tar Heels had less lift under late 3-point attempts and didn’t hit a single triple after the final seven minutes of regulation. There were a few flubs, too, like Dixon’s failed attempt to inbound the ball late — one of two North Carolina turnovers in the final 30 seconds.

Those mistakes proved costly as the Tar Heels later fell in overtime.