Maye leads Hough (N.C.) past Spring Valley, into Beach Ball Classic semifinals

When Luke Maye hit the deck hard during the first half Monday, he knew he wasn’t going to get much of a breather.

The Hough (N.C.) senior and North Carolina signee took a few moments on the bench before returning to spur his team into Tuesday’s semifinals of the Beach Ball Classic. Maye scored 29 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, leading the Huskies to a 71-58 win over Spring Valley.

And he did it all – from a quick start to overcoming the injury to his final numbers – with Tar Heel coach Roy Williams sitting courtside.

“I was going to go back in anyway,” Maye said of any extra inspiration to return after the hard fall. “My dad always tells me if I can walk, I can run. It was a little sore, but I’ll be fine.”

He certainly proved he was still healthy.

The double-double against the Vikings continued two of the senior’s streaks. He has now recorded the stat in 12 consecutive games, dating back to last season.

Maye has also done so in all five Beach Ball games he’s played.

During those appearances at the Convention Center, he’s averaged 19.4 points and 16 rebounds per game. Hough (11-1) first-year coach Jason Grube has yet to coach a game at the school in which Maye did not reach the double-double standard.

And the coach admitted his stats are often more stringent than others’.

“He’s a hard guy to stop because he gets a lot of tap-tap [plays]. … I’m a little harder to sell,” Grube said. “But he’s a double-double machine.”

The 6-foot-8 forward doesn’t simply rack up points in a way more traditional for his size. Maye hit his first four 3-point attempts and was 7-of-13 overall from long range.

“It’s a struggle I have. The kid is shooting 51 percent from the 3-point line prior to this game,” Grube said. “I’ve got to get him more looks, so we try to trail him on that. We have a couple sets we run where we use him as a screener. … I struggle with it because he’s such a dominant rebounder. If he’s 20 feet from the basket, he’s not five feet from the basket.”

That hasn’t been a problem at Beach Ball, either this year or last.

After two games in this week’s tournament, Maye has already put himself on a pace to break the event’s all-time four-game rebounding record (61, set by Julius Randle and Chris Singleton). His 19 boards Monday effectively tied him for sixth all time, one off the 20-rebound mark he had a year ago.

Those types of performances aren’t all that uncommon. Grube said it’s partially a credit to how the team practices. The Huskies frequently play seven-on-five games or simply throw an extra defender on Maye in order to simulate the attention opposing teams put on him each game.

Spring Valley attempted that with little success.

The Vikings’ P.J. Dozier, a South Carolina signee, finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Malik Dunbar had 15 points. Behind Maye, though, Hough got exactly what it needed to move on.

“I just do what I can to help my team win,” he said. “Tonight, it was a little scoring. Sometimes it’s rebounding. Other days, I try to help my teammates get open.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Maye leads Hough (N.C.) past Spring Valley, into Beach Ball Classic semifinals."