How Caleb Wilson stuffed the stat sheet as UNC rolled past FSU to open ACC play

Chapel Hill

When Caleb Wilson earned an offensive rebound and putback about seven minutes into No. 12 North Carolina’s game against Florida State on Tuesday night, it brought a good portion of the Dean E. Smith Center crowd to its feet.

The play wasn’t anything overtly flashy. Yes, there was the trademark display of Wilson’s pro-ready athleticism — he did, after all, jump over two Seminoles to wrangle the rebound before putting the ball back up over three defenders — but the response was presumably garnered by the timing of the bucket.

Before cruising to a 79-66 win over FSU, the Tar Heels shot terribly to open the game. A 1-of-11 start (9%) was bolstered by six missed 3-pointers. After Hubert Davis heavily emphasized shot selection in his press conference on Monday afternoon, North Carolina didn’t display much discipline in that regard to begin Tuesday night’s contest.

Wilson’s putback put a stop, at least momentarily, to that mess. The shot tied the score at 7-7 and kick off a 32-18 run — capped off by a Wilson dunk in the final minutes of the first half. The freshman went on to lead the Tar Heels in scoring (22), rebounding (16), assists (6) and blocks (2).

“We feed off of that,” Davis said of Wilson’s play. “Just the plays that he makes — there’s plays that only he can make.”

Davis said that, with the exception of four or five minutes, he felt the Tar Heels were disjointed in the first half.

“We just didn’t have any rhythm,” Davis said. “From an offensive standpoint, their pressure and intensity on the defensive end was more than our will and want to on an offensive end. So we were struggling getting any type of rhythm offensively.”

North Carolina (12-1, 1-0 ACC) lead by as many as 12 in the opening period before FSU (7-6, 0-1 ACC) cut its deficit to six points at halftime. The Seminoles proved peskier than their nonconference record might suggest, as it took UNC until midway through the second half to build another sizable lead over Florida State.

FSU switched up its defensive looks throughout the night — something Davis predicted on Monday — which forced the Tar Heels into some awkward attempts late in the shot clock. North Carolina still struggled overall from the perimeter, finishing 24.1% from deep.

Seth Trimble, who finished with 20 points and four steals, said Tuesday was one of those days where the team needed an “extra boost.”

“There’s a lot of things that we could have cleaned up,” Trimble said. “Guys are really tired… but offensive rebounds, we gave up [12] just not getting to shooters in time, things like that. We got a lot to learn from today, but it’s hard to win games.”

Tuesday night marks UNC’s seventh straight victory over Florida State. Here are two takeaways from North Carolina’s ACC-opening win:

Wilson stuffs stat sheet, Veesaar picks up play late

After Wilson’s putback the freshman continued to add to his highlight reel — particularly in the first half.

Take the stretch of play, for instance, after Wilson subbed back into the game with 13:23 remaining in the first half. In less than two minutes of game time, he recorded a layup, three free throws, a jumper and an eye-popping assist in transition for a Jonathan Powell 3-pointer.

Wilson said he was most proud of his assists on Tuesday night and credited his work in the film room.

“I know that teams are scouting against me heavily… I have to kind of make the playing field even,” Wilson said.

Veesaar, meanwhile, had a quiet first half. While the Arizona transfer had one shot attempt, he pulled down five boards. Even with zero points, he stayed involved in the offense by drawing defenders in the paint and kicking the ball out for a few hockey-style assists.

A dunk to open scoring in the second half got Veesaar on the board. Veesaar said that, at halftime, Davis told the big man he “wasn’t being aggressive enough.”

That play opened things up for the Estonian native, who was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field in the second half.

He kept adding dunks and layups to finish with 12 points, also adding 12 boards and three assists for his final statline.

Evans matches season high, Bogavac sees limited minutes

Evans has struggled to find his stroke as of late, with his last double-digit performance coming against St. Bonaventure over UNC’s Thanksgiving trip to Fort Myers, Fla.

There was an immediate difference on Tuesday night, though, which saw Evans make three of his first four attempts from deep.

On Monday, Davis praised Evans for a “really nice job” in running the Tar Heels’ offense, but also discussed the adjustments Evans has made in his new role in Chapel Hill.

“It is different in regards to having the ball in his hands a little bit more,” Davis said. “I think one of the things for him is also moving him off the ball and using his ability to shoot the basketball, make plays coming off of flares, wide pins, and being able to mix that up for him will put him even more in a better situation.”

Evans was by no means efficient against the Seminoles — finishing 5-of-15 from the field and 5-of-12 from deep. But those makes were needed on a night that saw the rest of the Tar Heels go 11.76% from deep.

“I think my teammates are doing a good job of finding me and I think I’m finding shots,” Evans said. “I just got to knock them down.”

Another interesting note on the backcourt rotation: Luka Bogavac finished with 13 minutes. That’s a season low and the second time in three games he’s logged just 13 minutes.

Derek Dixon and Jonathan Powell both finished with over 20 minutes on Tuesday night.

The backcourt combination of Dixon, Evans and Powell proved crucial in UNC’s second-half push against FSU. Davis said that, against a team like the Seminoles, the trio gave North Carolina a much-needed variety in who could handle the ball and initiate offense.

“When you had multiple guys out there that could do that, that helped us get into our sets, get to our spots and be able to get the shots that we wanted,” Davis said.

This story was originally published December 30, 2025 at 9:24 PM.