CHAPEL HILL, N.C. —Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar both had double-doubles once again as 12th-ranked North Carolina won its sixth game in a row, rolling past East Carolina, 99-51, on Monday night in the Smith Center.
Wilson posted his ninth double-double in his first 13 college games with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He also tied his season high with four blocked shots. Veesaar hit a career-high four three-pointers and tallied his sixth career double-double, all this season, finishing with 16 points and 10 boards.
Wilson and Veesaar both had doubles in the same game for the sixth time this season, tying the fourth-most in a season by a pair of Tar Heels after only 13 games this season. The program record is nine set by John Henson and Tyler Zeller in 2011-12.
Playing its final regular season non-conference game of 2025-26, Carolina improved to 12-1 this season. The Tar Heels are off to their best start since beginning the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons 13-0. UNC also started 12-1 in 2006-07. ECU saw its two-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 5-8.
Carolina is 182-18 against in-state, non-ACC opponents and has won 52 such games in a row.
Credit to Coach Davis, the UNC team, the UNC program, their players and coaches, they’re obviously a championship-caliber team and program, said ECU head coach Mike Schwartz. They overwhelmed us tonight, overwhelmed us with their length, overwhelmed us in the paint. They shot the ball really, really well, but it was established with their paint game in the first half. We just couldn’t recover and get it competitive.
Wilson has five consecutive 20-point games and nine 20-point games this season. He’s just the second UNC freshman with five straight 20-point efforts, joining Phil Ford in 1974-75.
Playing his first home game since the win over Kansas on November 7, Seth Trimble scored 12 points, all in the first half, and added five assists and four rebounds. Luka Bogavac snapped out of his mini-slump and scored 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting with four rebounds and a 4-for-5 effort at the free throw line.
Big man Giovanni Emejuru led the Pirates with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Carolina’s defense held the Pirates to 26.0 percent shooting as a team. Tar Heel opponents have shot under 40 percent in 16 of 26 halves this season. UNC is 9-0 this season and 54-4 under head coach Hubert Davis when holding opponents under 40 percent shooting from the floor.
UNC shot 54.0 percent overall and has shot 50 percent or better as a team in seven of 13 games so far this season. The Tar Heels are 42-1 under Davis when shooting at least 50 percent.
At least some of Carolina’s hot shooting was due to its 17-0 advantage in fast break points, as its athleticism and ECU’s 17 turnovers led to easy Tar Heel buckets.
“Consistently, we had five guys sprinting to the offensive end, and we were living in transition,” Davis said afterward. “I think it’s the fourth straight game that we’ve had 20 assists or more, so we’re sharing the basketball and in a good spot in terms of getting everybody involved.”
Carolina has held each of its first 13 opponents under 75 points. The last time UNC held its first 13 opponents under 75 was 40 years ago in 1985-86.
The Tar Heels hit 12 of 25 three-pointers as a team while ECU missed 20 of its 22 tries from long range.
Carolina was dominant virtually from the opening whistle, using a 23-4 run to build a 23-6 lead midway through the first half. The Pirates led, 2-0, on a pair of free throws in the first 20 seconds but never led again. The Tar Heels led by 23 at halftime and increased their lead throughout the final 20 minutes, cruising to an easy win.
How It Happened
First Half
• Carolina jumped out to a 10-2 lead by the first media timeout with eight of those points coming in the paint.
• It was 19-6 after nine minutes of action, and the Pirates missed 12 of their first 14 shots. The Tar Heels eventually built a 19-point lead at 29-10 with 7:09 remaining.
• ECU rallied to cut the deficit to 12 points with 6:22 to go, then Trimble and Veesaar hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it an 18-point advantage, just like that.
• UNC used a balanced first-half attack to seize control of the game quickly. Seven Tar Heels scored as Carolina shot 58.6 percent (17 of 29) as a team in the first 20 minutes.
• ECU struggled offensively, shooting just 28.2 percent, missing 8 of 9 three-point tries.
• Carolina committed 14 first-half turnovers but still led, 49-26, at halftime.
Second Half
• UNC began the second half with an 18-4 burst and widened its lead to 37 at 67-30 with 12:35 to go.
• Carolina’s shooting cooled somewhat after halftime to 50.0 percent, but the Tar Heels still shot 54.0 percent for the game.
• ECU missed 11 of 12 shots during one second-half stretch, and the Pirates were 8 of 34 from the floor after the break (23.5 percent).
Notes
• The Tar Heels improved to 5-0 all-time against ECU, including 3-0 in Chapel Hill. Monday’s game was the first meeting in the series since December 7, 2014.
• Wilson has scored in double figures in all 13 games this season, the third-longest streak by a UNC freshman to start a season behind Rashad McCants’ 20 games in 2002-03 and Brandan Wright’s 18 in 2006-07.
• UNC tied a school record with eight different players hitting three-pointers in the game: Veesaar (four), Jonathan Powell (two) and one each by Kyan Evans, Trimble, Bogavac, Jaydon Young, Isaiah Denis and Elijah Davis.
Up Next
Carolina will return to action on Tuesday December 30 in the Smith Center in its 2025-26 ACC opener against Florida State at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. After the game against the Seminoles, the Tar Heels will play just two home games in the month of January in a quirk of the conference schedule.
