Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Dec. 2, 1996, edition 1 / Page 14
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Women’s soccer advances to 15th final four **-o, t£L<. ■ J3U*' H DTH/GRAHAM BRINK UNC's Debbie Keller (8) looks for an open teammate as she dribbles against Florida's Leah Bridges. Saturday marked Keller's 100th game as a Tar Heel. Sophomore trio pushes UNC past Panthers BYROBBIPICKERAL SPORTS EDITOR They call themselves the Three Musketeers.’ They are, after all, best friends. The media calls them the ‘Super Sophs.’ They are, after all, star players on the basketball court. Friday night, everyone called them saviors. After all, Antawn Jamison, Ademola Okulaja and Vince Carter did lead North Carolina (2-l)toanß2-61 comeback victory against Pittsburgh (0-3) in front of a crowd of 19,744 at the Smith Center. “We huddle before every game and say, ‘What’re we gonna do today? Help this team or hurt this team?”’ Carter said. The trio helped their team in a big, big way Friday. Jamison, Okulaja and Carter established themselves as the meat of UNC’s offense and the potatoes of the Tar Heel ‘D,’ scoring all but 13 of UNC’s points and leading a defense in the second half that North Carolina coach Dean Smith said he was finally excited about. Jamison was the star of stars, posting a career-high 36 points, the most ever scored in the 11-year old Smith Center. Only Kenny Smith has recorded more points anywhere for UNC 41 in a Jan. 20,1987 contest at Clemson. “The thing that beat us in the game tonight can be summed up in two words: Antawn Jamison,” said Pitt coach Ralph Willard. Okulaja, meanwhile, showed off the defensive grit that has become his trademark. He seemed to be everywhere at every time jostling for the loose ball, scrapping for a tough rebound. His mental focus lifted his teammates and silently commanded them on both ends of the floor. His highlight perhaps the high light —of the game came with 6:05 remaining in the first half. With UNC down by four, the native of Berlin, Germany forced a steal near midcourt, then sped down the right sideline to put down a right-handed tomahawk jam in the face of Jason Maile, who was whistled for a bonus foul. “That,” Jamison said, “was nice.” Carter, meanwhile, displayed the speedy flash that has made him a crowd favorite. After leaving the floor after nine minutes with stomach cramps in UNC’s last outing against Richmond, Carter returned with zeal, posting 16 points, five boards, five assists, two steals and three blocks. He had a dunk, too —a two-handed putdown that keyed UNC’s second-half comeback and knotted the score at 46. “Ijust wanted to play hard,” Carter said. “Play hard and give a lift to this team.” UNC needed it coming out of halftime. For the third time in three games, UNC trailed heading into the break. The Tar Heels seemed tentative in the opening stanza, forcing both passes and shots. “In the first half, (Pittsburgh) showed poise, while we rushed, panicking and doing everything full steam,” Smith said. “At halftime, I put the word ‘patience’ up on the board. Patience on offense, patience on defense.” It seemed to work. UNC calmed down out of the break and patiently, methodically wore down the Panthers two (and three) points at a time. The awesome threesome led the charge, as Carter drove for two in the paint, Okulaja swished a 3 and AJ posted two rebounds and putbacks. The Tar Heels garnered their first lead of the second half when Ed Cota picked up a Carter block and fed Okulaja to put UNC up 44-43. “Once this team gets together, starts having fun—as long as we start playing defense and getting rebounds the offense is going to take care of itself,” Jamison said. Pitt took the lead again for the next six minutes, as the teams traded points on almost every possession. But around the 10-minute mark, Jamison took control, scrapping for every rebound, making every putback, and yes, See MEN'S BASKETBALL, Page 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Page 7 Seeing double Sophomore sensation Chanel Wright (left) matched her career high with 30 points as UNC crushed East Tennessee State 97-56 on Saturday. Wright scored 30 points for the second straight game. - ~ 'vMwajagiMß 1 ji Sl~>- v JbioSL, R|Hv fl jfinHs aSr hTh B 1 Bbn# Ji f Men's Basketball Pittsburgh 61 UNC 82 Jamison scores careerJiigh 36 See Page 11 DTH/AMY CAPPIELLO Pittsburgh s Kellii Taylor (23) looks to pass as he falls to the floor with North Carolina forward Antawn Jamison. Taylor had nine points and three boards in the Pirates' losing effort, while Jamison posted a career-high 36 points. Ndiaye debuts after NCAA restores eligibility BYROBBIPICKERAL SPORTS EDITOR North Carolina forward Makhtar Ndiaye was on the road with teammates Ademola Okulaja and Antawn Jamison when he heard the news: after sitting out the first two games of the season, the NCAA had cleared him to donn a blue and white uniform. After more than a year of sitting the bench, he would finally take the court as a Tar Heel. “We just went crazy (when we heard the news),” Okulaja said after UNC’s 82-61 win against Pittsburgh on Friday. “Now our team is unified. Now we’re all together, we can play together.” The issue was finally resolved late Tuesday night when the NCAA contacted UNC Director of Athletics John Swofford and told him that Ndiaye’seligibilitywouldberestoredbasedupon restitution of funds given to him by adidas rep resentative Sonny Vaccarro and his wife, Pam, since 1993. The amount of money was not released, but alt funds will go to charity. SPORTS MONDAY afjp Satlg ear Hppl ■ The Tar Heels must beat Santa Clara on Friday to advance to the finals. BY JOHN SWEENEY ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR North Carolina’s women’s soccerteam set up a return to its 15th-straight final four in grand fashion Saturday, as eight players scored in a 9-0 thrashing ofNo. 8 Florida. The match was the final home contest of the year for Women's Soccer Florida 0 UNC 9 the Tar Heels, who will journey to Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday to meet Santa Clara in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Portland and Notre Dame will play in the other semifinal match for the right to advance to Sunday’s cham pionship game. “When people talk about our pro- Team bids goodbye to soccer hut See Page 8 gram, I think the first thing that pops into mind is that we’re a fun team to watch,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. “We like to attack the other goal, and we try to score goals in buckets, and I think today’s Ndiaye, a native of Dakar, Senegal, lived with the Vaccarros for six weeks in 1993 before enrolling at Wake Forest. Since then, Swofford stated in a release, Ndiaye spent some holidays and vacations with them, con stituting a pre-existing tie that the NCAA has deemed appropriate in the past. However, UNC was unable to convince the NCAAthatthetiebetween Ndiaye and the Vaccarros was an unusual type of pre-existing relationship, Swofford stated. “That was the fundamental issue to this and the reason he must pay restitution for their support,” he stated. Friday, Ndiaye entered his first game as a Tar Heel at the 14:20 mark in the first half. He added bulk and depth to a team that had game was an example of our commit ment to the attack." Talk about an understatement. The Tar Heels dominated on the attack, outshooting the Gators 16-5 in front of a rain-soaked crowd of 1,023 at Fetzer Field. “Our box organization and our finish ing prowess was tremendous, because I looked up, and first of all, I couldn’t believe the score, and I couldn’t believe the score relative to the number of shots we had,” Dorrance said. “(Nine-for-16 shooting) is like a bas ketball team shooting 85, 90 percent.” The Tar Heels began shooting -and scoring - early and often. Senior midfielder Sarah Dacey opened up the scoring just 5:28 into the first half. Dacey found a Robin Confer penalty kick bouncing around inside the penalty area and slotted it past two defenders for the score. “I actually might have been out of position on (the first goal),” Dacey said. “I knew I didn’t have any pressure from behind, but I saw two players in the goal, and Ijust wanted to strike it hard enough that it would get past them but stay on the face of the goal.” Confer, a junior forward, tallied one of her own four minutes later, heading the ball in off a cross from sophomore midfielder Tiffany Roberts. The scoring continued unabated . L Junior forward MAKHTAR NDIAYE scored two points and pulled down three rebounds in his Tar Heel debut National Football League Scores Tampa Bay 0 Carolina 24 Washington 10 Dallas 21 Kansas City.. 28 Detroit 14 Arizona 17 Minnesota .... 41 Buffalo 10 Indianapolis.. 13 Chicago 17 Green Bay 28 Cincinnati 27 J'ville 30 NY Giants 0 Philadelphia.. 24 throughout the half, as Debbie Keller, Nel Fettig and Aubrey Falk all found net. Fettig’s goal coming on a pen alty kick for a Gator handball. Four second half goals —one apiece ffomNicole Roberts and Tif fany Roberts and two from reserve UNC senior SARAH DACEY scored one goal Saturday. forward Rakel Karvelsson completed the scoring. That tied for the highest total by a Tar Heel squad in an NCAA tournament game. “We brought basically our best game into the contest today and scored some, I think, spectacular goals,” Dorrance said. Perhaps most surprising, though, was the way die North Carolina defense shut downaFlorida team thatwas 5-1 against conference teams during its regular sea son. The Gators scored 98 goals on the year, many coming from forward Danielle Fotopoulos, the nation’s lead ing scorer. But Fotopoulos was held to just two shots Saturday. “I think our whole team knew how struggled with physicality in its first two games. He struggled a bit in the first stanza, looking like a seaman who had been away from water for awhile. But the force returned after halftime, as he turned on the bang that’s made him a bruiser in practice. Ndiaye finished the game with two points, three boards and multiple headaches-given. He wasn’t totally pleased with his perfor mance, he said, but he was happy to be back in uniform. “I’mjust ready to put everything behind me,” he said. “Ijust want to focus on getting better.” For his teammates, Ndiaye’s restored eligibil ity means a complete team. During his absense, they wore armbands bearing the No. 4. Satur day, they stripped them off. Okulaja said: "Now that he’s back, we’re really, really confident because he’s a great rebounder, a great shot-blocker... and just an all-around great player. “And we’re really proud to have him on our team.” St. Louis 26 New Orleans... 10 New England at San Diego (late) Monday's game: San Francisco at Atlanta Pittsburgh 17 Baltimore 31 Seattle 7 Denver 34 Houston 35 NY Jets 10 Miami 7 Oakland 17 Monday, December 2,1996 much of a threat (Fotopoulos) was, and so we got a lot ofhelp from Sarah (Dacey) and Laurie Schwoy in the midfield, and then Staci (Wilson) and Amy (Roberts) and Lorrie Fair did a great job,” Fettig said. “I think as a unit we all shut her down." Several Tar Heels, including Dacey, Keller, Amy Roberts, Nicole Roberts, Vanessa Rubio and Elizabeth Marslender, said their final goodbyes to Fetzer Field with Saturday’s game. “We went after them with the attitude that, ‘This is our last chance to play in ffontofourhome crowd together, so let’s have fun,”’ Keller said. Keller broke an NCAA record set by former Tar Heel Andrea Kelly for most games played with 100 and most games started with 95. “I think I’m just lucky because I had that many more chances to be a part of this program and to play with these guys, ” she said. And though the score may have sug gested it was an easy victory for the Tar Heels, Dorrance said afterwards that NCAA quarterfinal matches tradition ally made him the most nervous. Making it back to the final four, though, seemed to assuage those fears. He said, “Everybody wants to go to the big party, and in our sport, the final four is the big party.” Gator Bowl could match Miami, UNC ■ The Hurricanes defeated Syracuse on Saturday, forcing a three-way tie for the Big East title. STAFF REPORT With the Big East conference season over, North Carolina should learn its Gator Bowl opponent this week. The Jan. 1 contest will likely pit the 13th-ranked Tar Heels against No. 18 Miami. The Jackson ville,Fla.,bowl pits the No. 2 pick in the ACC against the No. 2 pick in the Big East, but Gator Bowl officials did htDYOTA GATOR FBCWL not know who the latter pick would be until the final Big East conference game between Miami and Syracuse this week end. Miami topped the Orangemen in Syracuse’s Carrier Dome on Saturday, creating a three-way tie for the Big East title. The Big East champion goes to the Bowl Alliance to play in either the Sugar, Fiesta or Orange Bowl against another Alliance pick. With the three-way tie, the Alliance will take the average of each team Virginia Tech, Miami and Syracuse—in the Associated Press and USA Today/ CNN Top 25 polls and award the squad with the highest ranking an alliance berth. See BOWL, Page 11 SPORTS SCHEDULE Monday Men’s Basketball vs. Bethune- Cookman, Smith Center, 7:30 p.m. Women's Basketball vs. Mount Saint Mary's, Carmichael Audito rium, 5 p.m. Wednesday Swimming It Diving vs. Duke, Koury Natatorium, 5 p.m. Friday Men’s Basketball vs. Southern California in Harris Teeter Pepsi Challenge, Charlotte, 7 p.m. Women’s Soccer vs. Santa Clara in NCAA Women's Soccer Champion ships (semifinal round), Santa Clara, Calif., TBA Saturday Men's Basketball vs. South Carolina or UNC-Charlotte in Harris Teeter Pepsi Challenge, Charlotte, TBA 14
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Dec. 2, 1996, edition 1
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