The UNC basketball program blitzed Marquette in the first half, jumping out to a 53-25 lead at halftime and coasting the rest of the way to a 30-plus point win over the Golden Eagles.
While the focus was on UNC’s offense, led by Brady Manek’s 28 points and Caleb Love’s 23 points, there was one player that didn’t stuff the stat sheet but proved his value on the defensive end of the floor, once again. And that player is Leaky Black.
The senior guard was tasked with guarding freshman guard Justin Lewis, Marquette’s leading scorer at 17.1 points per game. But on Thursday, Black put the clamps down on Lewis and held him to six points on 2 of 15 shooting in the game.
Scoring is important no doubt, but Leaky Black essentially erased yet another leading scorer with his defense.
His maturation into what Roy Williams always thought he would be has been a major storyline for North Carolina's improvement over the course of the season.
— Sherrell D. McMillan (@RellDMC) March 18, 2022
His defensive presence is being noticed more and more too, starting with his performance on Duke’s A.J. Griffin a few weeks back.
While Leaky has struggled to have an offensive identity in his time at North Carolina, he’s turned into not only the team’s best defender but one of the best in the ACC and potentially the country too.
He has another tough task ahead on Saturday against Baylor but if UNC gets this performance, they have the chance to pull off an upset.
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