Tomahawk Takeover: Aggressive Seth Trimble Delivers Career-High to Lead Tar Heels

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Seth Trimble had plenty of time to think. He was 30 feet past mid court — and from the closest Louisville defender — the senior guard slowed down his dribble as he contemplated what highlight dunk he would finish his fast-break steal with. 

One-handed tomahawk? Maybe. 

Back scratcher? No.

 “I did the back-scratcher last game,” Trimble said, reflecting on what was going through his head as he wound up for takeoff. 

Windmill? Too risky. 

“It was too close of a game,” he said after. “If I would have missed it, that probably would have been a turning point.”

One-handed tomahawk it was. And boy did it land. The highlight jam, not only blew the lid off the Smith Center and gave UNC its largest lead of the game, but it was the climactic moment in Trimble’s career-high 30-point performance that led No. 18 North Carolina past No. 24 Louisville, 77-74, on Monday night. 

“I didn’t know what was coming, but it was just a big energy play for us, and it was great to see,” Derek Dixon said about his point-of-view on the dunk. 

The urgency of Trimble’s scoring effort didn’t come from a good morning shootaround or different pregame routine, but instead his sluggish first-half at Syracuse on Saturday. After finishing the opening period with no points and only one attempted shot, the veteran guard knew he had to be more aggressive. And so did his teammates. 

Players like Dixon and Henri Veesaar challenged their captain at halftime to step up in his offensive role and deliver as they knew he could. Hubert Davis also spoke with Trimble. He challenged his leader sternly to turn it around in the second-half and be a creator for the offense. 

“I was like, ‘It just doesn’t work without you, Seth,’” Davis recalled. “He can impact winning in so many different ways. And I just challenged him to do it. And to do it consistently.” 

Trimble took the feedback on the chin and pumped out 13 second-half points to help defeat the Orange. And with little turnaround before a matchup with the Cardinals, he continued to ride his hot hand, starting the game 4-for-4 and tallying nine points in the first 8:22 minutes. 

This included making his first 3-pointer since his corner triple to sink No. 4 Duke over two weeks ago. A 0-for-8 slump, Trimble was ready to get over with. 

“I’ve been waiting on that one,” he said, before explaining when he knew it was going to be a big night. “As soon as I hit nine points, I felt… in a groove and a really good rhythm. I just knew there was gonna be more to come, in a good way.”

At halftime, Trimble had a game-high 16 points, 10 of which came from getting downhill and finishing at the rim for an easy — or sometimes rather difficult, body-contorting — layup. In the second half, the game plan didn’t change. 

He used his muscular 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame to tally eight more points in the paint on 11-for-16 shooting in total, and draw eight fouls to add seven made free throws. However, what may be more impressive than his scoring numbers was his ability to be so effective on the offensive end while guarding Louisville’s best scorer, Mikel Brown Jr. 

Coming into the game, Brown was on a tear. The true freshman was averaging over 30 points per game on 21-for-36 (58.3%) shooting from beyond the arc in his last four outings. But against a Trimble-led Tar Heel defense, he was 6-for-14 from three and had to score his 24 points on 25 shots.

On a night where he was able to score seemingly at will on one end, Trimble didn’t let it take away from his scrappy defensive ability on the other, as he helped UNC’s perimeter defense to one of its best performances against a proven 3-point shooting team.   

“He just made so many plays,” Davis said. “Not just scoring, but defense, deflections, steals, box-outs, rebounds. Obviously had a career high, but I’m just really happy for Seth; he played extremely well.”