10
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2007
Outside shots
fall late in win
BY JESSE BAUMGARTNER
SPORTS EDITOR
Roy Williams insists that his
team’s ability to shoot the basket
ball is not a concern after some early
struggles in exhibition games.
“It doesn’t bother me in the
least,” he said. “We’re going to shoot
the ball well.”
His players, on the other hand,
were getting anxious to see a few
long bombs go through the net after
struggling to hit any type of outside
shot during the first half of Friday’s
game against Lenoir-Rhyne.
“I think we kind of noticed that
at halftime we didn’t make any
3-pointers really,” forward Danny
Green said. “The second half we
came out, and we kind of focused
on it ...and tried
to make a point
to knock down
open shots.”
After going
just 2-17 on 3-
MEN'S
BASKETBALL
Lenoir-Rhynes2
UNC 107
pointers through the first three
halves of exhibition play this sea
son, the Tar Heels hit three of four
attempts in the second half and
corrected one of their only visible
weaknesses in a dominating 107-52
victory in front of a sparsely popu
lated Smith Center.
To be fair —and as Williams
mentioned after the game the Tar
Heels had no real need to shoot the
ball from the perimeter because of
an overwhelming physical advantage
in the paint. With Green and Tyler
Hansbrough both posting double
doubles and contributing to a 50-24
rebounding margin, the night turned
into a tip drill and free throw shoot
ing practice for the Tar Heels.
But while it’s hard to judge inside
play against such weak competi
tion, the Tar Heels showed flashes
of the perimeter play that could be
crucial to success this season.
Sharpshooter Wayne Ellington
knocked down two second-half 3-
pointers, and as last season showed,
his ability to hit those outside shots
makes it that much easier for
Hansbrough and Cos. down low.
Bobby Frasor, who hopes to see
more time at the shooting guard
position this year, was quiet during
his first-half stint at the position but
got the Tar Heels going with their
first 3-pointer of the night early in
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the second half when he pulled up on
the right wing to swish a rainbow.
After two years of running the
point, switching to that shooter’s
mentality is something Frasor is
working on he said after the
game that he would have been
hesitant to take that shot had he
been playing point guard.
“Being the point guard, you
wouldn’t know who’s back on
defense, you wouldn’t know who’s
on the rebound, but as a two you
have a little more freedom.”
Even Ty Lawson known more
for his full-throttle flashes to the
basket pulled up from 12 feet in
the second half to knock down his
lone jump shot of the game. But
Lawson also said he wished he had
used the exhibition games to work
more on those jump shots instead
of continually driving past the over
matched Lenoir-Rhyne guards.
While perimeter play will be an
ongoing theme for this year’s team,
turnovers and inside defensive pres
ence should also be on the things
to-watch list. Williams said he was
unhappy with some of the team’s 20
turnovers, in particular a couple by
Marcus Ginyard. And with the loss
of leading shot-blocker Brandan
Wright, the Tar Heels are without
that inside intimidator.
In addition to a ferocious right
handed dunk on Friday, Green
blocked several shots in the lane
and could contribute to a more
team-oriented defense of the rim
this season.
“I guess that’s just another way
of telling teams ‘stay out of the
paint,’” Green said. “Even though
if Brandan’s not here, we’ve still
got some guys who can contest the
shot”
And standing only 6-foot-6-
inches, Green the team’s sec
ond-leading shot blocker last year
could surprisingly be that intim
idating force for North Carolina.
“Guards can block shots just as
well as big men,” Green said. “It’s
just timing. It’s not really much of
height or how high you can jump,
just timing and knowing where the
ball’s going to be at (and getting to
the spot).”
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.
Tar Heels give up late heartbreaker
Maryland scores with six seconds left
BY RACHEL ULLRICH
SENIOR WRITER
With six seconds on the clock, the
North Carolina men’s soccer team
were sprawled across the field.
Junior Michael Callahan held his
head in his hands, sophomore Eddie
Ababio lay facedown on the grass,
and goalkeeper Tyler Deric hadn’t
moved from the dive he had made to
attempt to save a slammer of a shot
from Maryland’s Graham Zusi.
Meanwhile, Zusi was at the bot
tom of a Terrapin
dogpile.
Entering the
70th minute
with a 1-0 lead,
the Tar Heels
again had to
MEN'S
SOCCER
Maryland 2
UNC 1
20T
watch it slip away after Zusi who
also scored No. 15 Maryland’s tying
goal converted a give-and-go just
inside the far post with six seconds
remaining in the second overtime.
“The disappointment really
doesn’t end with this game,” head
coach Elmar Bolowich said. “The
disappointment hangs with how
we played our season.”
The loss leaves the Tar Heels
with a 6-7-5 record, the program’s
first losing record since 1997 and
only the fifth in its history.
The Tar Heels have scored first
and ended with a draw or loss five
times this season, something senior
Andre Sherard, who played his last
game at home Friday, attributed to
UNC beats Va. Tech for fifth straight sweep
BY PENN ELY
STAFF WRITER
J’he North Carolina volleyball
team coasted to its fifth straight
sweep Saturday night with a domi
nant performance against Virginia
Tech. UNC hasn’t put together
such a streak
since 1999-
The Tar Heels
continued their
winning ways
VOLLEYBALL
Va. Tech 0
UNC 3
as they took game one 32-30 and
never looked back, winning games
two and three without much dif
ficulty.
Lauren Prussing led the way
with 15 kills and 14 digs, her second
consecutive double-double match.
Head coach Joe Sagula said that
Sports
the “simple things.”
“It’s been like this all season,” he
said. “It’s the small things that get
us in trouble just simple stuff
like getting back on defense and
winning second balls.”
Maryland brought the firepower
early on, with three shots in the
first two and a half minutes.
UNC was able to get on the board
first, though, with a Joan Carvajal
header to the lower right after a
scramble in the box and assists from
Ababio and attacker Bill Dworsky.
But Zusi had other plans, and he
celebrated his fifth and sixth goals of
the season after curving a free kick
above the wall in the 70th minute
and scoring during extra time.
“They played hard here tonight,
we were a little unfortunate on
a few occasions, and they were
opportunistic,” Bolowich said.
“We had the lead and didn’t hold
on to it. They worked very hard to
get back into the game, and they
got rewarded for it.”
Emotions ran high with ACC
seeding on the line, and six yel
low cards were awarded, including
two to the North Carolina bench
leading to the ejection of assistant
coach Jeff Negalha,
The Tar Heels were outshot for
only the fourth time this season, and
UNC’s five shots were the team’s sec
ond-lowest output this season.
Callahan had two chances in the
final minutes to nab the winner, but
his team’s focus on each match’s
game plan has been one of the keys
to its recent success.
“We’ve also got people stepping up
and playing well at every position at
different times.
Our defense has
still been our
strength.”
Sagula also
said the seniors’
performance
during the
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streak has given his squad a boost.
“Its great to see our seniors in
Christie Clarke, Bekah Brinkley
and Ashley Board play so well,”
Sagula said. “I mean that’s what
you want to see, finishing on a high
note. The rest of the team is rally-
SIH SR
if BA A jFI
DTH/SARAH RANSOHOFF
UNC junior Joan Carvajal works to defend Maryland's Drew Yates in the
Tar Heels’ 2-1 overtime loss on Friday. UNC is now 6-7-5 for the season.
both left UNC unable to convert.
His free kick in the 102nd min
ute hit the wall, but he slammed
the rebound just wide of the goal.
Only 50 seconds before Zusi’s
game winner, senior Cameron
Lewis went wide after he mis
placed Callahan’s cross.
“In overtime it’s making a play or
making a mistake—that’s reallywhat
it comes down to,” Bolowich said.
Callahan said the team now
must focus on the ACC Tournament
the sixth-seeded team opens
against Duke on Wednesday.
“Hopefully everyone realizes our
season is at stake,” he said. “That
ing behind them.”
Brinkley had difficulty pinpoint
ing the key to the recent success
but agreed that more attention to
game plans has been critical.
“We really don’t know. It’s been
a total team effort I guess, just buy
ing into the coach’s philosophy and
really going with that 100 percent.”
The match was the last the
three UNC seniors will play in
Carmichael Auditorium, but
Brinkley has little time to reflect
on her Tar Heel career as the team
now faces an important four-game
ACC road trip.
“It’s still not the end of the end, so
we just are going to let the emotion
stay there and one© the season’s real
ly over it’ll really kick in for all of us,”
UlJjp latlg ®ar Uteri
was kind of the case for this game,
but even more now.
“Everyone needs to find it in
themselves and bring a little extra.”
Bolowich also said ACC perfor
mances will be crucial the team
must win two games to be eligible
for the NCAA Tournament —a cut
they have not missed since 1998.
“We have nothing to lose any
more; we pretty much lost it,”
Bolowich said. “We can play a lit
tle more free and hopefully we can
make run and not give up on it.”
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.
she said. “We’re going to come in and
surprise some teams in the end.”
Sagula emphasized the impor
tance of not focusing on the streak.
The upcoming four-game stretch
will be critical for his team head
ing into the ACC Tournament.
The coach said the Tar Heels
must take it one match at a time.
“We knew that last weekend
would be really important and it
gave us some really good confi
dence. The dangerous thing is that
we can’t sit back.”
UNC returns to action
Wednesday with a trip to Wake
Forest.
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.