PALO ALTO, Calif. -- With 9:50 left in the second half at Maples Pavilion, North Carolina led Stanford 73-66 -- and then it happened again. Over the final 9:50, Stanford outscored North Carolina 29-17 to hand the Tar Heels a 95-90 loss -- their third of the season and second consecutive away from the Smith Center.
What was once a minor concern has rapidly turned into an obstacle that this North Carolina team can't seem to clear.
En route to its first loss of the season, North Carolina was outscored by Michigan State 21-8 across the final 9:36 of the 74-58 loss in Fort Myers on Thanksgiving.
Wednesday's collapse in Palo Alto marked the third straight game in which the Tar Heels were outscored by 10+ points over the final 10 minutes. It was also the fifth time it's happened against a major-conference opponent.
After holding Stanford to 21 points over the first 10 minutes of the second half, North Carolina unraveled late -- allowing the 29 points in the final 10 minutes, including 11 in the final 2:12.
"It's not even that we let our energy drown and we lose focus," Henri Veesaar said after Wednesday's loss. "It's more that we take a couple bad shots and get a little bit careless with the ball. We don't value the possession as much when we get up."
In Saturday's near-disaster against Wake Forest, North Carolina held a 72-57 lead with 9:50 to play before the Demon Deacons closed on a 27-15 run, narrowly missing a chance to force overtime on the game's final possession.
A week earlier in Dallas, SMU closed the game on a 28-18 run over the final 8:25, slamming the door on UNC's 97-83 loss.
"There were a number of times where we were up 12, 15 points," said Hubert Davis following the close call against Wake Forest. "And in those situations, you get a stop-score-stop, and before you know it, it’s 19 or 20. In every one of those situations, we never took a step forward. We took our foot off the gas pedal on both ends of the floor."
Coinciding with Davis' comments, North Carolina led by as many as 12 in Palo Alto, but squandered a chance to right Saturday's wrongs.
"I think we've got to stick to what works," Caleb Wilson said bluntly when asked what North Carolina can do to hang onto, and extend its leads.
So what's fueling these recent crawls to the finish line? There's a list of reasons, but the most glaring is clear. Over the last three games, North Carolina has surrendered 44 made 3-pointers, and opponents have shot 50 percent or better in five of six halves.
Fatigue and depth also deserve their share of the blame -- Wednesday night in particular. Caleb Wilson and Seth Trimble played 36 minutes against Stanford and were two of just four Tar Heels to log 17+ minutes in the second half. After combining for 45 bench minutes against Wake Forest, Jaydon Young, Jonathan Powell and Derek Dixon totaled just 20 on Wednesday, putting even more strain on UNC’s heavily relied-upon stars.
"I mean, from an offensive standpoint, we're getting what we want," said Davis. "Defensively, we're just not getting sustained stops. And it's two-, three-minute stretches where teams will go on a seven- or nine-point run. And it's something that's been happening to us all year, and it's something that's just going to have to change moving forward."