8
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2003
McCants leads UNC to win
Felton adds 12
assists , 4 steals
BY JAMIE AGIN
SENIOR WRITER
After years of using N.C. A&T as
its Division-I measuring stick, D
II N.C. Central got a crack at
North Carolina on Saturday.
And on a positive note, at one
point, the Eagles had a 2-0 lead.
But in UNC’s first game without
the injured David Noel, Rashad
McCants came off the bench to
lead UNC to a 97-59 exhibition
blowout of
NCCU at the
Smith Center
on Saturday.
Melvin Scott
got the starting
MEN'S
BASKETBALL
N.C. Central 59
UNC 97
nod at shooting guard after
McCants missed five recent prac
tices and the Blue-White scrim
mage with a strained quad.
But after McCants came in at
the 16:45 mark, he proceeded to
score 14 points in 13 minutes.
“Rashad McCants, he can
score,” said UNC coach Roy
Williams. “That’s a great talent.”
The sophomore guard, who fin
ished with 26 on the game, hardly
looked like an injured player, espe
cially on a pair of second-half
plays.
On one, Raymond Felton threw
a no-look pass to an unsuspecting
Byron Sanders. The ball zipped
behind Sanders and there was a
scrum for it near the UNC bench.
McCants emerged and took it in
for an uncontested reverse dunk.
Later on, McCants cleaned up a
Sean May miss rolling around the
rim with a put-back jam that
roused the crowd of 16,658.
“It felt pretty good,” McCants
said of his quad. “I’m still a little
sore, but I fight through anything.”
McCants went 10 of 15 from the
field, and he also tallied five steals
and five assists in the contest.
Felton, though, led the Tar
Heels in assists with 12, compared
to only one turnover. May had 15
points in the game, going along
with his team-high 10 rebounds.
But Williams was bothered by
the amount of offensive boards
the Eagles had. Nine came from
Brandon Bowman, who finished
the game with 15 total rebounds.
by following four new
Teach For America teachers
• working in some of the nation’s
University of North Carolina
Monday, November 10 • 8:00 pm
Gardener 105
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DTH/ANDREW SYNOWIEZ
North Carolina wingman Rashad McCants, who missed the Tar Heels' first exhibition game, slams home two
of his 26 points in Saturday's win against N.C. Central. UNC wili play its final exhibition game Thursday.
“I’m not an idiot,” Williams said.
“They shoot 33 percent, they’re
going to have a lot more offensive
rebound opportunities than if we
shoot 56. But you can’t give up 22
offensive rebounds.”
Freshmen Justin Bohlander and
Reyshawn Terry played 12 and 10
minutes, respectively, at forward.
Bohlander found his way to the
free throw line often and hit on 5 of
6 attempts, but neither player was
a monster on the glass.
The Tar Heels will have one
more exhibition to increase their
rebounding prowess as they will
take on Nike Elite this Thursday at
the Smith Center.
A big reason for McCants’
Sports
impressive performance and the
increased roles for Terr)' and
Bohlander was the absence of
Noel, w'ho injured his hand last
Tuesday in practice.
Noel was running up the court
after a lay-up w'hen he collided
with Terry. Noel’s hand banged
into Terry’s hip, hyperextending his
thumb and tearing ligaments.
Noel is scheduled for surgery on
Wednesday and said the 6-to-8
week timeframe for his return is
still in place.
In the meantime, he’ll continue
to work on conditioning with the
team, including lifting weights
with his left hand.
“The left side of my body is
going to be real big, and (the right)
one is going to be real flat,” Noel
said. “Nah, I’m just playing.”
Williams, feeling his team
lagged on defense at times despite
the 38-point margin of victory,
sounded less light-hearted after
the game. He implied there might
be some running in Noel’s, and
everyone else’s, futures.
“In some ways, they sent a big
signal to a coach because they
almost made me feel like we’re not
in very good condition,” Williams
said. “And that’s not a good signal
to send to the coach.”
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.
Tar Heels top
South Carolina
FROM WIRE REPORTS
COLUMBIA, S.C. Seeing his
first action in nearly a month,
freshman forward Corey Ashe
came off the bench to score late in
the first half to lead the No. 13
North Carolina men’s soccer team
to a 1-0 victory at South Carolina.
Ashe, who missed the last four
matches with a sprained ankle,
scored his fourth goal of the season
in the 43rd minute mark off an
assist from rookie midfielder Wes
Shull. Ashe now has 10 points on
the season, third on the squad. The
goal was also Ashe’s second game
winner of the season.
After Ashe gave UNC (12-3-3) a
1- lead at the half, goalkeeper
Justin Hughes and the defense
kept the Gamecocks (8-7-2) off the
scoreboard in the final frame.
Hughes finished with four saves
and picked up his fourth shutout
in seven starts. Asa team, the Tar
Heels have tallied nine shutouts
this season.
UNC also continued to excel in
close contests, improving to 10-2
in one-goal matches.
South Carolina goalkeeper Brad
Guzan made five saves and allowed
one goal. The Gamecocks outshot
the Tar Heels, 13-12.
North Carolina returns to action
at the 2003 ACC Tournament,
w'hich begins Wednesday, Nov. 12.
The No. 4 Tar Heels face No. 5 N.C.
State at 3 p.m. The winner faces top
seed Maryland Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m.
Tar Heels split in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The
North Carolina men’s and women’s
swimming and diving teams went
3-1 as double dual meets conclud
ed with Minnesota and North
Dakota at the Minnesota Aquatics
Center on Saturday.
Coach Frank Comfort’s womens
team, ranked No. 15, went 2-0 on
the weekend to improve to 2-1
overall on the season. The Tar Heel
women downed the host Golden
Gophers by a score of 201-169 and
defeated the University of North
Dakota by a score of 306-63.
The Tar Heel men split their
meets in Minneapolis and are now
2- on the season. The No. 24
uU?r Bailij (Ear Hrri
UNC men beat the Fighting Sioux
of North Dakota 292-78 and fell to
the No. 8 Golden Gophers 227-
138.
Individually on Saturday, UNC
grabbed five individual women’s
wins and two individual men’s
wins. North Carolina also won one
women’s relay.
On the men’s side, freshman
Tristan Davidson claimed a win in
the 400-yard individual medley as
he clocked a time of 3 minutes,
55.31 seconds. UNC senior co-cap
tain Yuri Suguiyama had the other
Tar Heel win as he won the 500-
yard freestyle in 4:32.15, leading a
1-2 finish in that event for UNC as
junior Reid Owen took second
place.
North Carolina’s women fin
ished the meet on a strong note as
the 400-yard freestyle relay of
Virginia Hanson, Emily Carroll,
Jessi Perruquet and Amanda
Smith won the event in 3:28.13.
Senior Becky Acker led the Tar
Heels to a 1-2-3-4 finish in the
400-yard individual medley as she
won in a time of 4:25.00 followed
by Smith, Lizzy Bruce and
Kathleen Quinn. Quinn produced
a win of her own as she led all fin
ishers in the 200-yard backstroke
with a time of 2:04.35. Bruce and
Acker also finished in the top two
spots of the 200-yard breaststroke
with Bruce finishing first in
2:17.24.
UNC’s other wins were both in
freestyle events as Perruquet took
top honors in the 100-yard
freestyle with a time of 51.06 sec
onds and Kelly Weeks captured the
500-yard freestyle with a clocking
of 4:50.53.
Duke gets elusive ACC win
DURHAM Duke’s Chris
Douglas ran for a career-high 218
yards and two scores, and Malcolm
Ruff had a 42-yard interception
return for a touchdown to lift the
Blue Devils to a 41-17 win against
Georgia Tech.
Duke (3-7,1-5 in the ACC) had
not won an ACC game since beat
ing Wake Forest 48-35 on Nov. 13,
1999, a league-record losing streak
of 30 games.