Derek Dixon ‘not scared of the moment’ in UNC basketball win at Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. — There was no fear, no hesitation, no thought of failure in front of more than 20,000 rabid fans inside Rupp Arena.

When the moments arrived, UNC basketball freshman Derek Dixon snatched them and sent a sea of blue — Big Blue Nation — to the exits in the final seconds. Over the course of 53 seconds in the 16th-ranked Tar Heels’ 67-64 win at No. 18 Kentucky, Dixon buried a contested, step-back 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and made a driving left-handed layup over a 7-footer for the go-ahead bucket.

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“He’s not scared of the moment,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said of Dixon after UNC’s first win in Lexington since 2007.

“You could see that throughout the entire game. He felt really comfortable out there. I felt like he had good command on both ends of the floor.”

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In a game that featured nine ties and 14 lead changes, including six in the final 3 ½ minutes, Dixon played nearly 24 minutes, including the final 5:50 as UNC (7-1) rallied from a six-point deficit with a 17-8 run to take down the Wildcats (5-3).

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“I’ve always been a fan of road games, feeding off that crowd and that energy,” said Dixon, who finished with nine points to match his season-best effort, along with three rebounds and two assists. “Just going in, obviously when they go on a run, it’s gonna get loud. But we had to stay together, stay tight. It was just a lot of fun.”

An early appearance for Dixon in the first half, when UNC starting guard Kyan Evans picked up his second foul and was sidelined, helped build that confidence for the key moments in the second half.

“I think, throughout the game, I had gotten some good run and I felt like I was pretty confident out there on the floor,” Dixon said. “So I felt like, down the stretch, I just kept that same confidence…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/derek-dixon-not-scared-moment-100644803.html

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Publish date : 2025-12-03 10:06:00

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