By JC Murphy

The North Carolina Tar Heels scraped by the Winthrop Eagles Wednesday night, 73-66. The Heels trailed by eight points at halftime and did not take the lead until a Bobby Frasor lay up midway through the second half.

Guard Torrell Martin was largely responsible for the Eagles lead, connecting on six three point attempts for 20 first half points. However, grew tired in the second half, and could only muster five more points.

Tyler Hansbrough led the Tar Heels with his usual 20 points and 10 rebounds. Freshmen Wayne Ellington and Brandan Wright contributed with 13 and 12 points respectively.

Even though the Tar Heels were largely unimpressive and the victory margin was unconvincing, they still were victorious, which other highly rated teams such as Kansas, Boston College and Arizona can not say. It is also important to remember that Winthrop is a good team. They are favored to win the Big South once again this year and make the NCAA Tournament, and in last years tournament it took a Chris Lofton fade away three from the corner to keep Winthrop from knocking of the No.2 seeded Vols.

It appears that junior guard Quentin Thomas is the victim of gridlock ion the UNC backcourt. He only played the final fourteen seconds of the game after showing tremendous improvement in the second half of last season and drawing rave reviews in off season scrimmages. It’s hard to argue though with Roy’s decision making considering the dynamic play of freshman Tywon Lawson.

From here the Tar Heels advance to fabled Madison Square Garden for the semifinals of the Preseason NIT against Gonzaga. I look forward to what should be a good match up between Gonzaga freshman point guard Matt Boldin and the Heels Tywon Lawson. The winner of that game will face the winner of Tennessee for the Preseason NIT Championship.