Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 21, 2005, edition 1 / Page 10
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
PAGE 10 SCOREBOARD MAn ESTREICH STREICH ZONE Tar Heels test water vs. G-W In mid-October, Roy Williams spoke with the media about his outlook on this year’s edi tion of the Tar Heels, offering a succinct answer to the inquiries about how his team might fare. “I’m being very honest, and the answer is I don't know,” Williams said. Following Saturday’s 83-80 squeaker against a tougher-than expected Gardner-Webb team, Williams, along with the rest of Tar Heel nation, got a much better idea of where the defending national champions will stand in ’OS-06. Beginning with the game's opening minutes it was clear North Carolina was without a commanding presence at point guard. Freshman Bobby Frasor started in place of sophomore Quentin Thomas and led an offense that turned the ball over on eight of its first 12 possessions. Though the duo eventually set tled down, they weren’t alone in their early frenetic pace. Rookie and veteran Tar Heels alike were guilty of playing out of control in the early going, taking bad shots and forcing errant passes. “It’s an experience thing,” said junior Reyshawn Terry. “So we just have to take this and learn from it and go out there and do better.” There’s no question nerves were a major factor for the Tar Heels. But in somewhat unex pected fashion, it was two of UNC’s freshest faces who man aged to right the ship. Seemingly fed up with the bevy of blunders, freshman lyier Hansbrough snatched a defen sive rebound and drove the ball downcourt himself, ending his run with a pull-up jumper at the 15:49 mark of the first half. Hansbrough’s ability and desire to take over the wayward offense solidified his prominent scoring role for the rest of the game. But Hansbrough’s offensive prowess wasn’t the top story of the first half. It wasn’t even the best freshman effort. Th# belonged to Danny Green and his 14 points in six unbelievably pro ductive minutes. After nearly sailing the first shot of his collegiate career into the band section of the Smith Center, Green knocked down three of his four field goals, including a pair of 3-pointers and six free throws. Saturday’s fabulous freshmen were joined by a solid effort from Marcus Ginyard. His devastat ing defense evoked visions of Jackie Manuel, and his timely tip-in with 1:23 remaining staked North Carolina to a short-lived five-point lead. In trying to find the best mixture of talent on the court, Williams subbed at will. On seven different occasions, North Carolina made personnel sub stitutions consisting of three or more players. The best concoction consisted of senior forward David Noel, Hansbrough, Green, Thomas and Terry. That mix minus Thomas —of fresh-blood and veteran leadership was on the floor when Noel canned the game-winning 3. But it also was that combo that allowed pesky Gardner-Webb to creep back into a game the Tar Heels should have solidified minutes earlier. When North Carolina had the opportunity to sink precious free throws that would have iced it, the Tar Heels went cold missing six in the final 1:24. Each game leading up to the ACC schedule will be another chance for Roy Williams to solidify his rotation following the most damaging personnel loss in NCAA history. But here’s where this squad differs from last year’s it’s already one game ahead of the championship pace. Contact Matt Estreich at estreich@email.unc.edu. Sports Monday VOLLEYBALL Florida State 3 UNC 2 Senior saves day for UNC NOEL’S 3 WITH 1.8 SECONDS TO PLAY LIFTS TEAM TO WIN BY DEREK HOWLES ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR With time slipping away, an 11-point lead whittled down to zero and six straight missed free throws looming over their heads, the North Carolina Tar Heels turned to their leader, to their most experienced player to bail them out. Enter... David Noel? Yes, David Noel he of the 29.6 per cent career 3-point shooting percentage. Yes, David Noel he of the 5.1-point career MEN’S BASKETBALL G-W 80 UNC 83 scoring average. But in this post-exodus season, Noel by default as much as anything else will need to be a go-to guy in the clutch for the Tar Heels. So with 1.8 seconds to play in UNC’s season opener Saturday night against feisty Gardner-Webb, the senior forward took a pass at the top of the key and let fly (' 5 UNC 24 H DUKE 21 HEELS CLANG ON FEISTY DUKE HANGS ’TIL END BY BRIAN MACPHERSON SENIOR WRITER Ahead by a touchdown and seconds removed from a goal-line stand early in the first quarter, the North Carolina football team appeared to have enough momentum to cruise to a lopsided win against Duke. Instead, the Tar Heels began to unravel completely. Kentwan Balmer threw an elbow to the head of an opponent, giving the Blue Devils new life, and the North Carolina defenders suddenly found themselves too busy bickering to prevent Duke quarterback Zack Asack from scoring a game-tying touchdown. If not for a clutch scoring drive late in the fourth quarter, in fact, the result could have been far uglier than the Tar Heels’ unsightly 24-21 victory at Kenan Stadium on Saturday. “I was real disappointed in losing our poise and losing our discipline,” said UNC coach John Bunting. “There is no reason for that. You are never going to be able to respond in a way after a play in an illegal way to make it right.” Not much seemed to go right for the Tar Heels (5-5, 4-3 in the ACC) for the rest of Pepperdine washed up BY GREGG FOUND STAFF WRITER Fetzer Field didn’t appear any different Saturday, but upon fur ther inspection, fans might have noticed a firing range near the Pepperdine goal. Or a brick wall on the defen sive end of the field. Or a powder blue flag at mid field signifying UNC’s domi- nance. The top seeded Tar Heels got off to a blazing start on their home field in a 6-0 victory that advanced them- to the NCAA quarterfi nals and left WOMEN'S SOCCER Pepperdine 0 UNC 6 INSIDE Tarpley, White power the Tar Heels' record setting attack. PAGE 9 Pepperdine wondering if traveling more than 2,500 miles was worth the trip. “You cannot simulate that kind of speed,” said Pepperdine coach Tim Ward. “(Santa Clara head coach) Jerry Smith told me, ‘You’re going to be in for a tornado.’” Just more than five minutes into the game, the blue-and-white fiinnel cloud touched ground. Midfielder Kacey White fed a comer kick that Heather O’Reilly tapped back to uncovered forward Elizabeth Guess, who punched it in for the game’s first score. www.dailytarheet.coin with a rainbow of a 3. It hit the rim and rattled around ago nizingly before finally dropping through to lift North Carolina to an 83-80 win in front of 19,781 delirious fans at the Smith Center. “When I let it go and I looked at it, I was like ‘Ahh, it’s a little short,’” said Noel, who ended up with 17 points. “But once it bounced around and went in, I jumped for joy.” The end-of-game heroics, though, were made necessary only because of a combination of hot jump shooting by the Bulldogs and amazingly sloppy play by the Tar Heels especially in the opening minutes. Gardner-Webb (0-1), which returns five veteran starters and is heavily favored to win the Atlantic Sun Conference, hit North Carolina (1-0) between the eyes early, and the Tar Heels didn’t hit back, recording turnovers on eight of their first 12 possessions. Down by as much as seven, UNC the first half, despite a tongue lashing from defensive coordi nator Marvin Sanders on the sideline. And when the Blue Devils (1-10, 0-8) took a 14-7 lead on a one-yard dive by Justin Boyle, the unthinkable —a second straight Duke win at Kenan Stadium suddenly seemed possible. “(Duke) was real intense, pushing after the play and doing all that,” said linebacker Tommy SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 9 “She was ... moving to her left and managed to almost ‘Matrix’-like stop in the air.” anson dorrance, UNC COACH ON PEPPERDINE GOALKEEPER “That wasn’t where I meant to play the ball,” White said. “But Heather got a good flick on it, and it worked out.” If it was a lucky goal, it didn’t matter, because what followed was a barrage of scoring on a record setting day for the Tar Heels. The fourth-seeded Waves hadn’t allowed more than two goals in a game all season. It took UNC less ■r\ M| fIOBMImL ■ ' /• : DTH/LARRY BAUM North Carolina's Heather O'Reilly unsuccessfully attacks Pepperdine goalkeeper Anna Picarelli in the Tar Heels' 6-0 blowout Saturday. VOLLEYBALL Miami 3 UNC 2 finally rallied to take the lead almost 12 minutes in, thanks in large part to the calm play of freshman forward Danny Green, who came off the bench to pro vide 14 first-half points in just six min utes. But that calm demeanor didn’t rub off on the Tar Heel point guards. Freshman starter Bobby Frasor had seven assists, including the game-win ner to Noel, but he also turned it over five times, missed all four of his 3-point attempts and went l-for-6 from the floor. And sophomore Quentin Thomas, who did manage to dish out four assists, turned it over three times himself and missed all three of his shots from the field. “If you looked at it tonight and know anything about basketball you said, ‘My gosh, that’s a bunch of inexperienced kids,’” said Coach Roy Williams. SEE GARDNER-WEBB, PAGE 9 ■ DTH/ALISON YIN North Carolina wide receiver Wallace Wright is wrapped up by a Duke defender during UNC's 24-21 win Saturday. than 18 minutes to change that. Within the next 13 minutes, UNC had racked up 18 shots, and both midfielder Lori Chalupny and forward Lindsay Tarpley had found the net for a 3-0 lead. This was all before Pepperdine had taken a shot. The Waves eventually did get in SEE SOCCER, PAGE 9 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2005 WRESTLING Best UNC finish: Alex Maciaq, 2nd npr ~ ■Mir . m DTH/BRANDON SMITH North Carolina forward Reyshawn Terry powers to the basket to flush home a dunk in the Tar Heels' 83-80 thriller of a win Saturday against Gardner-Webb. Terry finished with 13 points. Hobbled D-line comes through BY BRANDON PARKER SENIOR WRITER As the North Carolina train ers attended to injured senior defensive end Tommy Davis mid way through the third quarter of Saturday’s contest against Duke, a towering shadow of anxiety cast over them. Melik Brown bobbed around and peeked over the trainers in a hopeful attempt to discover what was wrong with his fellow lineman and fearless leader. But as Davis gingerly trotted toward the sideline, Brown found one answer that his role suddenly had switched from that of a junior with minimal expe rience to that of a veteran teacher for Bowen Chapman, a walk-on SEE D-LINE, PAGE 9 ’Cats overwhelmed in season opener After slow start, UNC dominates BY JACOB KARABELL SENIOR WRITER Late in the second half Friday, Davidson received a technical foul for attempting to call a time out when it had none remain ing. Perhaps a few more timeouts could have saved the Wildcats from their fate. North Carolina already had built a 36- point lead prior to WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Davidson 48 UNC 86 Davidson’s Chris Webber imi tation, and the No. 7 Tar Heels cruised to an 86-48 win in their season opener at Carmichael Auditorium. UNC junior Ivory Latta con tributed a game-high 20 points and seven assists, but it was the team’s balanced attack that stood out most. All 14 athletes on the roster scored at least one field goal, a feat achieved when sophomore Meghan Austin rushed down the court and successfully depos ited a layup with seven seconds remaining. Midway through the first half, though, the expected blowout seemed less than assured. 2lfjp latlg alar Utrrl With eight minutes to play in the opening period, the Wildcats went on a 10-2 run cutting a double-digit Tar Heel advantage to six points and forcing UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell to call a timeout. “We weren’t getting the ball inside like we usually do,” Latta said. “We were settling for out side jumpers even though they were leaving some people open. (Hatchell) wanted to attack them instead of just sitting out side and driving. She called a timeout, and told us what we needed to do.” For a moment, it also looked like UNC (1-0) might have lost its best post player to injury. Sophomore Erlana Larkins cringed in pain after coming down on a Davidson player’s foot going for a rebound, and was helped off the floor by the trainers. Fortunately for Hatehefl’s team, Larkins returned to the game with a taped right ankle and ended the match with 12 points, the second highest total on the team. By the time the sophomore for ward was back on the floor, UNC SEE DAVIDSON, PAGE 9
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 21, 2005, edition 1
10
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75