Trimble scores 30, UNC tops Louisville in top-25 game. Observations from the win

In a game that, just weeks ago, would’ve been headlined by the battle between two star freshmen — Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. and UNC’s Caleb Wilson — it was a senior who made all the difference.

No. 18 North Carolina defeated No. 24 Louisville, 77-74, on Monday night behind a career-high 30 points from captain Seth Trimble, who reached his previous season-high 22 points with 13 minutes left to play. His previous career-high 27 points came in a win over Dayton in November 2024.

“Seth was huge for us tonight on both ends of the floor,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “He had the responsibility of guarding Brown — and what a responsibility that is. He’s a fantastic player.”

“You have to find ways to be able to break down their defense and be able to consistently score,” Davis added. “And Seth was our guy coming off ball screens. The thing that I love about him was he was thinking, ‘Attack,’”

Trimble’s thunderous dunk — racing out ahead of everyone in transition and looking back before detonating the rim with a one-handed hammer — capped a 17-1 second-half run that gave the Tar Heels their largest lead of 16 points with 13:38 to play.

Louisville (20-8, 9-6 ACC) came as close as two points in the closing minutes, but Trimble’s poise at the free throw line helped UNC (22-6, 10-5 ACC) ice the game.

Henri Veesaar and Luka Bogavac each finished with 12 points, while Jarin Stevenson led the team with seven rebounds.

With the win, UNC earns its sixth Quad 1 win of the season — and its first without Wilson. Its previous victories came against Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State, Virginia and Duke. North Carolina is now 6-6 in Quad 1 games this year.

Here are three observations from the win:

Hot start for Seth Trimble keeps Tar Heels close

When Trimble went scoreless in the first half Saturday at Syracuse — missing his only shot before halftime — his teammates got on him.

“At halftime, we all challenged him, ‘We got to be better. We need you,’” freshman guard Derek Dixon said Saturday. “And he stepped up to it.”

Trimble scored 13 points in the second half to help the Tar Heels top the Orange and overcome a sluggish first half. But, against Louisville on Monday night, it took no time for the senior to get going.

He scored 16 of UNC’s 39 first-half points, making 7-of-10 field goal attempts — all of this while picking up Brown on defense. Trimble’s 16 first-half points also marked a career-best performance for him (in an opening half).

North Carolina fell behind by as many as 10 points midway through the first half, but Trimble’s scoring was there to steady the Tar Heels. He continued to pour in points in the second half and repeatedly came up clutch at the free throw line — sinking four shots from the charity stripe in the final two minutes.

Trimble’s previous season-high of 22 came in a Jan. 3 loss to SMU. His only other game of 20 or more came in a December win over Florida State.

“These last few games, I’ve been in a place where I’ve just found myself not being aggressive,” Trimble said Monday. And I’m not really too sure where it’s come from, but I’ve noticed it... I was on myself about, you know, being as aggressive as possible, especially with the way Louisville played. I felt like, you know, I could have a lot of opportunities, which I did today.”

How did UNC handle Mikel Brown Jr?

Brown entered Chapel Hill coming off a pretty good week.

The Louisville freshman was named ACC player and rookie of the week on Feb. 16 in addition to Naismith Trophy player of the week and AP national player of the week.

He didn’t slow down in the Smith Center — at least, at first — recording 13 first-half points, including a trio of 3-pointers.

But it took Brown until nine minutes remained in the game to record his first bucket of the second half, a 3-pointer he drained before throwing his hands up in frustration.

Trimble primarily picked up Brown on defense, although Stevenson (who finished with nine points) and Jonathan Powell switched on to him at times, as well as a few other Tar Heels. Stevenson even earned a block on Brown late in the first half, one of two rejections he had (along with a highlight-worthy block of Ryan Conwell late in the second half).

While opposing guards have torched UNC at other points this season — examples include SMU’s Boopie Miller (scored 27) Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie (36) — North Carolina was able to disrupt Brown’s flow for long stretches as the game.

“We knew they were going to run through their guards... so we knew we had to stay locked in all night,” Dixon said Monday. “We couldn’t take any deep breaths or anything on defense, because something’s always coming. And we really locked in.”

After starting 5-of-13 from the field in the first half, Brown went 1-for-7 from the floor (including 1-of-4 from 3-point range) to start the second half. He finished with 24 points, but was relatively inefficient at 9-of-25 from the field. His fellow Louisville guard, Conwell, finished with 23 points.

Crucial second half runs put the game away

North Carolina entered halftime up by one point at 39-38.

Not even seven minutes passed in the second half and Louisville coach Pat Kelsey needed to call a timeout. Suddenly, his team found itself down by 16.

North Carolina made seven of its first 13 field goals out of the halftime break but, more importantly, forced Louisville to miss its first 10 shots from the field in the second half.

“When good things were happening for them, they were making shots, and they got on a little bit of a run,” Kelsey said of UNC’s start to the second half. “You know, you’ve got to have that resolve to respond with toughness. And it just took us too long to do that. I think we finally flipped that switch, like I said, the eight-minute mark. Why it was like that for that (initial) 10-minute stretch of the second half, I’m not sure, but it’s something that we got to fix.”

The Tar Heels continued to roll steady for most of the game. That is, until the Cardinals cut their deficit to five. Two straight 3-pointers — first from Conwell, then from Brown — made the score 72-67 with 2:07 to play.

Trimble was fouled and made both free throws, but another Brown jumper and two Conwell free throws made things even tighter at 74-71.

Dixon dribbled the ball to UNC’s bench and called a timeout with 46.7 points.

Veesaar missed a good look, but a missed layup by Brown on the other end forced Louisville to foul. Trimble made both free throws to put UNC up by a comfortable five points with 12 seconds to play.

This story was originally published February 23, 2026 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Trimble scores 30, UNC tops Louisville in top-25 game. Observations from the win."