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Full Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournament pairings—page 7 Sports Monday Phelps-less Tar Heels lose ACC final GEORIGATECH 77 LJNC 75 By Warren Hynes Senior Writer CHARLOTTE ln its 40 years of existence, the Atlantic Coast Confer ence Tournament has always loved the upsets. It’s part of the deal here: strug gling team finds new life in the frenzy of postseason basketball. You can’t escape it. Even if you’re North Carolina. Even if you’re No. 1. The Tar Heels, playing without start ing point guard Derrick Phelps, found themselves stung by a suddenly potent Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket squad, 77- 75, in the ACC Tournament final before 23,532 in the Charlotte Coliseum. The Yellow Jackets (19-10, 11-8 in the ACC) jump-started their season with tournament victories against Duke on Friday, Clemson on Saturday and UNC on Sunday. Georgia Tech was the first . No. 6 seed to win the ACC Tournament since N.C. State in 1987. That year the Wolfpack also beat a top-seeded UNC squad in the final. And the Jackets earned themselves an NCAA Tournament bid, all right: Tech is the fourth seed in the West Regional, and it will play South ern Friday in Tuscon, Ariz. “Don’t let their sixth-place (ACC) finish deceive you,” said UNC head coach Dean Smith. “This team can win the national championship. “People around the country say, ‘lf that ’ s the sixth-place team, that’s a pretty good league.’” As for North Carolina (28-4,16-3), it earned the top seed in the East Regional despite the loss. UNC will play Colo nial Athletic Association champ and UNC-system friend East Carolina Thursday in Winston-Salem. But the Tar Heels probably will not finish the season ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press Poll. They’ll find out today. “It would have looked nice on the banner, but that’s about the extent of Snubbed in ACC voting, Forrest retaliates with memorable 3-day scoring tear Pnrroct la/I rll 111 “ 1 A. A 11 A 1 . . By Warren Hynes Senior Writer CHARLOTTE There was snow on the ground outside the Charlotte Coliseum this weekend. But inside, there was a Forrest fire. In one of the most dominating per formances in ACC Tournament his tory, Georgia Tech forward James Forrest scored 80 points in three games and shot 68 percent from the field, lead ing the sixth-seeded Yellow Jackets to a surprise tournament triumph. All 6 feet, 8 inches and 255 pounds of him was ablaze. Sampson fires blanks, UNC falters By Amy McCaffrey Senior Writer ROCK HILL, S.C. With 23 sec onds remaining in the first overtime of the 1993 ACC Championship, UNC junior guard Tonya Sampson was screaming, “Let’s play defense, ladies! Let’s play D!” But Sampson was yelling from a front-row spectator seat rather than from the court. And she was witnessing Vir ginia defeat Maryland in triple-over time, not leading her 18th-ranked Tar Heels in their first championship game since 1986. Sampson shot a combined 11 for 35 in this year’s ACCs, scoring 36 points and nabbing 16 rebounds and nine steals in two games. A breakdown of the games tells the story: Against N.C. State in the tourney’s quarterfinals March 6, Sampson scored 28 points, nabbing seven rebounds and six steals. North Carolina won, 89-71. In the semifinals versus Maryland Editorial page will be back in Tuesday’s DTH The Daily Tar Heel editorial page will return Tuesday in its normal lo cation. Because much of the edit-page staff isdiggingoutfrom the century’s worst winter storm, we were unable to pro vide a coherent page. We apologize for the inconve nience. Letters to the editor should be sub mitted by noon today to be consid ered for publication in Tuesday’s paper. Letters must be typed, double spaced and limited to 400 words. East Carolina first up for UNC in tournament By Bryan Strickland Senior Writer Ninety minutes after North Carolina’s 77-75 ACC championship game loss to Georgia Tech, the top ranked Tar Heels began putting the temporary setback in their rear-view minor. That’s when UNC (28-4) learned its NCAA Tournament fate. Despite Sunday’s loss, the Tar Heels earned the No. 1 seed in the East Regional, and they earned the right to meet East Carolina in Thursday’s first-round ac tion. The Tar Heels and Pirates will tangle Thursday at Lawrence Joel Coli seum in Winston-Salem. The 13-16 Pirates, the No. 16 seed in the East and, for all intents and purposes, the No. 64 team in the tour ney, are the first team with a losing record - to reach NCAA play since Montana State made it in 1986. ECU received an automatic bid by virtue of its 54-49 ousting of James Madison in the Colonial Athletic Conference championship. Because of a University policy that states that the Tar Heel football and it,” said UNC center Eric Montross. “It wasn’t what we were playing for.” Phelps bruised his tailbone severely in a fall during Saturday’s semifinal win against Virginia. His status is listed as day-to-day. The absence of the point guard damaged UNC’s defensive at tack, as the Tar Heels were unable to gamble like they do when Phelps plays. “I knew it was going to be a tough one,” said senior George Lynch. “I ac tually thought we were going to lose by 10 or 20. It definitely should be a moti vating factor knowing that we played as well as we did without Derrick.” Forrest led all scorers Sunday with 27 points and hauled in 10 re bounds as his team staved of No. 1 North Carolina 77- 75 and snagged the No. 4 seed in the West Regional of the NCAA Tour nament. The sophomore James Forrest forward had finished sixth on the ACC’s regular-season scoring list this year but was not named to the first-, second- or MARYLAND 7?1 March 7, Sampson made eight points on l-of-19 shooting. Sampson missed her first seven shots before connecting on a 3-pointer with seven minutes, 54 seconds remaining in the first half. In the second half, Sampson’s lone points were free throws made with 19 seconds left in the game. And North Carolina lost, 75-61. “If Tonya’s had just had a normal game, we probably could have pulled it out, because we had all the other play ers,” said UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell. Sampson’s normal game would have translated to about 21.2 points, tops in the league during the regular season. Add in her steals (3.7 per game, first in the ACC) and rebounding (8.2 per game, fifth in the ACC), and it’s clear why Sampson was named first-team All-ACC at the regular season’s end. But Maryland was a complete rever sal. Wrestlers nip State, defend ACC crown Staff report DURHAM North Carolina claimed its second-straight ACC cham pionship and eighth overall last week end, edging N.C. State by one point in the ACC tournament held at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. “I’m just excited for the entire team,” UNC head coach Bill Lam said. “That’s a total team effort. I told the team before the tournament we had no chance to win. Just go out and everybody wrestle as hard as they can and when it’s all over, we’ll look up and see how we did.” UNC finished with 78.5 points, besting the Wolfpack’s 77.5 total. Clemson finished third with 66.25, fol lowed by Maryland with 65 points. 10 The Daily Tar Heel/Monday, March 15,1993 basketball teams will not compete against non-conference, in-state op ponents, Thursday’s game will mark the first time that the UNC hoops squad has faced such an opponent in 25 years. The Tar Heels last met a non-ACC, in state team March 16, 1968, downing Davidson College in the second round of the NCAA tourney. After the Tar Heels easily oust out manned East Carolina, things will get a little tougher. But a quick read be tween the brackets suggests that the Tar Heels may have drawn the easiest road to the Final Four of any of the four top seeds. In Saturday’s second round, the Tar Heels would meet the winner of No. 8 Rhode Island and No. 9 Purdue. Many thought that the Atlantic 10-member Rams (18-10) would be on the outside looking in when the pairings were announced. But Rhode Island received an at-large bid despite finishing fifth in the Atlantic 10. Purdue (18-9) could be a more dan gerous second-round matchup for the Tar Heels. Paced by Big Ten scoring See NCAA, page 9 Concern No. 2 for the Tar Heels is the team ’ s shooting—from the outside and inside. After hitting 49.3 percent of their shots in Friday’s quarterfinal win against Maryland, UNC hit just 37.9 percent against Virginia and 39.4 per cent against Tech. North Carolina missed several uncontested shots. “There are times when this team is a very good shooting team overall,” Montross said. “But it is disheartening when you take good shots and they don’t go in.” See ACC, page 6 third-team All-ACC squads. “I came out with a vengeance,” he said Sunday, a freshly-clipped net dan gling from his neck. “I wasn’t really disappointed, but I had to prove that I was at least a candidate.” Said North Carolina center Eric Montross: “I think he may have been real upset that he wasn’t on the all conference team. If that sparked him, then they’d better put him on the all conference team next year.” Sunday, Forrest was given an honor that couldn’t possibly be denied him: tournament most valuable player. “I thought Forrest was just tremen “It was a bad game,” Sampson said. “The shots just wouldn’t fall. I was wide open and everything.” Without Sampson, the rest of the Tar Heels shot 45.7 percent from the field. A largely-unguarded Stephanie Lawrence led UNC with 16 points, in cluding four 3-pointers. Sylvia Crawley and Toni Montgomery each shot 5 for 9 for 11 and 13 points, respectively. Part of the problem was Maryland’s defense the Terps used a zone that had been successful in their Feb. 20 win against the Tar Heels. “Defensively, I don’t know if we could have played any better,” said Maryland coach Chris Weller. “I thought we did a good job on Sampson.” But even Weller conceded that her team couldn’t take complete credit for Sampson’s performance. “Idon’tknow if that’s us. You’ll have to ask UNC.” The Terrapins spread out their of fense when main gun Jessie Hicks found herself double- and triple-teamed throughout most of the game. Malissa Boles scored a career-high 24 points on Sophomore T.J. Jaworsky, the top seed in the 134-pound weight class, and Marc Taylor at 158 led the Tar Heels. Jaworsky pinned Clemson’s Marcus Pollock at 4:58 in Friday’s semifinal and won the championship Saturday with a pin at 4:57 against State’s Clayton Grice, the second seed. Taylor, the second seed at 158, outpointed Duke’s Dan Goffredo 15-8 in the semifinals before eking out a 3-2 win against top-seeded Vasilios Lahanas of Maryland. North Carolina also had three wres tlers finish as runners-up in their divi sions. Dave Leonardis came in second at 142, falling to No. 1 seed Mark Cesari of NCSU. Stan Banks fell to State’s * y- pi ifefe '■--- ■* - I ' Mfl. Iffiy rs t. • . DTHflayson Singe George Lynch and Eric Montross grimace as Georgia tech celebrates its ACC Tournament win in the Charlotte Coliseum Sunday dous throughout the tournament,” said UNC coach Dean Smith. Added Georgia Tech head coach Bobbby Cremins: “He became a man now. I hope he can continue that. There’s lots of expectations.” Forrest hit the clutch shots: His 15- foot jumper with 1:07 left in Friday’s quarterfinal with Duke gave Tech a 68- 66 lead, a lead not to be relinquished. And Forrest was in the middle of the Yellow Jackets’ rallies: He scored lOof 12 unanswered points in a torrid first half run Sunday. “I felt in order for us to make the NCAA Tournament, we had to come in 8-of-16 shooting. Katrina Colleton added 16 points. Hicks, who had scored a career-best 29 points the day before against Florida State, finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. Seven of those 15 came from free throws. “We really didn’t emphasize offense coming into this game,” Weller said. “We really wanted to stress defense.” The Terrapins held UNC to 33.8 per cent shooting, and the Tar Heels turned the ball over 22 times. Following Monday’s title game, three Terps were given All-ACC Tournament honors: Hicks was named to the first team, and Colleton and Monica Bennett were named to the second team. In the NCSU game, Sampson as serted herself in every facet of the game. She was there on offense: scoring 12 points inside, 12 points from the 3-point arc and four of five shots at the charity stripe. She also tallied six assists. “She had an exceptional shooting day,” said NCSU coach Kay Yow. “It would have helped us if she hadn’t been Chris Kwortnik in the final at 167, while Rick Hall forfeited to State heavyweight Sylvester Terkay in the final after the team title was already clinched for UNC. All the conference champions and runners-up earned automatic entry into the 1993 NCAA wrestling champion ship. Three Tar Heels earned wild-card bids to the NCAA Tournament as well by winning the consolation rounds of their classes. Jared Ezzell, who lost to eventual champion Troy Bouzakis of Clemson in the semifinals, earned a bid at 126. The fourth-seeded Ezzell defeated No. 3 Jim Guzzio 2-0. Mike Chase earned a bid at 150, besting State’s Tom Lee 1-0, while Damon Michelsen was named an alter The Big East’s beasts Seton Hall 103, Syracuse 70 Indiana 87 Wisconsin 80 Missouri 68 Kansas State 56 Louisville 90 VCU7B Ohio State 72 Purdue 62 Kentucky 82 LSU6S Southern 101 Jackson State 80 Long Beach St. 70 N. Mexico St. 62 Texas Tech 88 Houston 76 and at least win one or two games,” Forrest said. “After we won the first one, we said, ‘Why can’t we win the second one?’ And after we won yester day, we said, ‘Why can’t we compete for the ACC championship?’ We just came out with the right attitude.” Forrest’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer knocked Southern California from the NCAA Tournament in last year’s sec ond round. With his performace this weekend, you get the feeling that this is a man who knows what March is about. “I just came in with a lot of confi dence,” he said. “I was confident from day one. Coming in against Duke, I was Tonya Sampson on in quite that manner. It’s just another thing to sort of plague you. You play really hard, really good, then she steps back, shot and it’s for three points.” But she was also there on defense: stealing the ball six times and snatching five of her seven rebounds on the State half of the court. nate at 190. Michelson defeated Duke’s Pete Ackerman 8-4. Other tournament champions in cluded: 118 Sam Henson, Clemson 150 Steve Woods, Maryland 177 Tim Morrissey, Clemson 180 Dan Madson, NCSU The Wolfpack claimed four indi vidual champions, besting Clemson’s three. Terkay’s title was his fourth, making him only the fourth ACC wres tler to claim four conference titles. State led after the first day of compe tition with 57 points, while UNC and Maryland battled for second. The Tar Heels held a 50.5-50 edge over the Terrapins after Friday’s semi final round. hyped up. I just stayed in the comfort zone.” Forrest played center in high school and has been adapting to the small for ward position for the past two years. “He’s still learning the game and the perimeter skills,” Cremins said. “You can see that his perimeter skills are starting to improve. “I really think he’s going to be a great one before his career is over.” And he’s still learning. This may not be the last tournament MVP trophy of James Forrest’s career. “I’m just trying to step up to the plate and hit the open shots,” he said. Lacrosse defeats 3 in Top 17 By Justin Scheef Staff Writer UNC’s third-ranked lacrosse team rallied behind senior attackman Steve Speers Saturday to defeat No. 6 Loyola College 17-8. The victory ended a spar kling Tar Heel homestand that saw the team raise its record to 5-0 with three win against nationally ranked squads. North Carolina opened the Spring Break hpmestand in front of3,oooFetzer Field fans March 7 with a 14-10 upset against top-ranked Syracuse. The Tar Heels followed that victory with a 25-3 thrashing of 17th-ranked Penn State March 10. Against Loyola, Speers had two of his career-best six goals in the fourth quarter as the Tar Heels pulled away from the Greyhounds. North Carolina outscored Loyola 9-2 in the second half of the rain-soaked affair, played with temperatures in the low 30s. UNC took on No. 1 Syracuse in the rain in the first game of the week. The Orangemen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game, prompting the numerous Syracuse faith ful on hand to chant, “WE ARE ... S.U.!” Disgruntled UNC fans responded by substituting “OBNOXIOUS!” or “ON PROBATION!” for “S.U.” The Tar Heels quieted the Syracuse partisans by coming back to tie the score 7-7 at half. UNC outscored the Orangemen 4-1 in the third quarter to take control of the game, getting goals from Ryan Wade, John Dolan, Donnie McNichol and Ousmane Greene. “I just think that we came to play today,” Speers said. “We were in better See LACROSSE, page 9
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