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Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Tuesday, March 29, 1977, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Volume No. 84, issue No. 121
Please call us: 933-0245
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Marquette
Caro
Defeat brings tears
to eyes of players;
season ends 28-5
By GENE UPCHURCH
Sports Editor
ATLANTA North Carolina almost became the No.
I basketball team in the nation Monday night, but a
group of yellow-and-blue-clad Marquette Warriors
became the national champions instead, winning the
NCAA basketball tournament 67-59 here in the Omni.
The tears in the eyes of the Tar Heel players, fans and
cheerleaders as the game ended showed what a big word
"almost" is. Carolina, after being down by 1 2 points at
halftime, made a furious comeback to tie the game at 4 1 -41,
and went to the Four Corners stall offense.
Marquette responded with its own version of the delay
game and kept the Tar Heels just an arm's length away
from hanging an NCAA championship banner in
Carmichael Auditorium.
"I wanted to win for the seniors and all the guys on our
team," UNC guard Phil Ford said quietly after the loss.
"Now we have to wait until Oct. 15 to start over again.
That's one of the great things about athletics. Life is
gonna go on win or lose."
The scene in the Carolina lockerroom after the game
was one of sadness. The seniors Walter Davis, Bruce
Buckley, Woody Coley, John Kuester and Tom
LaGarde had had time to think over the game that
brought an end-to their careers at Carolina.
"I looked at my jersey as I went to the showers," Davis
said. "I looked at the number on it and thought to myself
that this would be the last time I would take it off."
For the freshmen on the Tar Heel squad, all of whom
had made a tremendous contribution to the program, it
was time to think of the past season and of the season to
come. Among those were Mike O'Koren, voted to the
all-tournament team after he scored 31 points against
Nevada-Las Vegas in the semifinal game Saturday and
14 against Marquette. :;
"1 felt like we'd win it," he said. "If my shots and
everybody else's shots had dropped, it would have
helped."
Carolina went to the Four Corners with over 12
minutes left in the game.
"I thought it would rattle them when we held the ball
with the score tied," O'Koren said. "But it didn't."
Ford scored only six points in the game, but refused to
blame his off-scoring night or a sore elbow for the loss.
Ford injured his elbow in the semifinal game of the
Eastern Regional tournament against Notre Dame, and
he took a bad tumble out of bounds chasing a ball in the
first half. After the fall, he returned to the floor slowly.
"I don't want anybody to quote me as saying my
elbow hurt my play tonight or cost us the game," he said.
"But I feel that I have been useless to the team' for the
past two games. Anytime you play for the national
championship, that should be enough to get you up Xo
win." Ford returned to the court for second-half warm
ups late because he was receiving ice treatment on the
elbow.
Marquette played inspired basketball, UNC Coach
Dean Smith said, and blamed the Warriors' alternating
zone defense for Carolina's inability to score.
"I thought we were in charge when we went to the
Four Corners with the score tied," he said. "We went to
the Four Corners to try to pull Marquette out of its zone
defense."
The championship game was Marquette Coach Al
McGuire's last as a college coach. He put on a good
show for fans in the Omni with his gestures to officials
on questionable calls, and one time almost turned over
his chair backwards after flinging himself into it in a fit
of disgust. But after the game he was subdued and quiet,
and he praised Smith for the UNC coach's moves in the
game.
Please turn to page 2.
Mixed
By CHUCK ALSTON
National News Editor
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!. !.!.!!!
What can you say about a dream that died?
The only responses the campus had to offer were the
sounds of kicked trash cans . . . curses . . . and a fade into
nothingness as silence reigned supreme across the
campus... a lonely GO CAROLINA reached
out... but it too faded... the sounds of kicked trash
cans...
There was no joy in Mudville.
Earlier, the emotion was hope, not sorrow, and the
crowds stayed loyal to the end.
"They played their best," one fan remarked, leaving
the basement of the Carolina Union where the remains
of a crowd were filing out.
"They did good, they got there. It's perfect for Al
McGuire. His last game, you know."
For Al McGuire's last game, packed houses were the
rulein dorm lobbies across campus. In Connor, a crowd
of approximately 80 had crammed into every possible
T , H-&iI
Quest for crown
ends at Warrior
free throw stripe
By GRANT VOSBl RGH
Staff Writer
ATLANTA The same things that made the miracle
killed any chance for the culmination of a dream.
The Miracle Kids' clutch free throw shooting helped
push them past Virginia, Purdue, Notre. Dame,
Kentucky, and Nevada-Las Vegas. But against the
Marquette Warriors Monday night in the NCAA
championship game, UNC's string was broken. It was
Marquette who hit the crucial foul shots on its way to a
67-59 win.
The Warriors hit 14 straight foul shots in the final two
minutes to erase any thoughts Carolina might have had
about coming back.
The Tar Heels, however, gave it their best shot. Down
by 1 2 points at the half, Carolina made a run in the early
part of the second half and pulled even 43-43 with 14: 19
left in the game. At that point it seemed like the miracle
was, indeed, destined to become a reality. Such
comebacks had become a trademark of the 1977 Tar
Heels.
But a patient Marquette team would not let the Heels
take away its going away present for Al McGuire, who
coached his final game for the Warriors.
"I was not emotional until the five-second count
triggered me," McGuire said. "I trigger easily.
"Right now I feel washed out."
McGuire said the, national championship brought
with it a lot of memory.
"At the end of the game, I sat there and thought of all
the lockerrooms, the dirty jokes, the pals and the other
things a New York street fighter knows growing up," he
said.
The Warriors and the Tar Heels played it even
through the first 1 2 minutes of the game, with each team
taking its time on offense and applying a variety of tight
defenses. Then with 7:32 left in the first half, Warrior
forward Bo Ellis hit a six-footer from the side to put his
team up 18-15.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose for Carolina.
The Warriors went on a rampage, outscoring the
Heels 21-12 for the remainder of the half. As the Tar
Heels entered the lockerroom, the score stood 39-27.
But something happened during that 20 minutes
between halves. The same thing had happened time and
again during the Heels' quest for the national title.
"At the end of the half Coach (Dean) Smith told us
that we had out-possessioned them by three," freshman
Rich Yonakor said. "He told us that we would just have
to dig in more on defense and hope that their shots
wouldn't fall like they had in the first half." '
The Tar Heels insisted on getting back in the running.
And it didn't taken them very long.
Mike O'Koren, who was named to the all-tournament
team, sparked Carolina to a rally at the outset of the
second half. Carolina outscoredthe Warriors 1 6-4 in only
seven minutes, tying the score at 43 all. O'Koren himself
scored half of those UNC points.
It was then that a crucial play that UNC's Smith
thought might have been the turning point occured.
Bruce Buckley put up a shot out of the Four Corners
with 12 minutes. Ellis, however, batted the ball away at
the rim. Buckley and his teammates thought the call
should have been goal tending, but the referee ruled it a
clean block.
"It could have gone either way," Smith said of the call.
Marquette got the loose ball, took to the other end of
the court and entered its delay offense. The game
became an uphill battle for the Tar Heels.
The Warriors passed up outside shots and took only
high percentage shots. The Heels managed to pull even,
47-47, at 6:22 on two Walter Davis foul shots, but a pair
Please turn to page 2.
s reign in Chapel Hill; fans drow
n defeat
viewing position to watch the game.
The national anthem gave way to clapping and at T
Minus 3:56 Dean Smith appeared on the screen. . .The
clapping yielded to shushes as Dean gave the Tar Heel
outlook on the game.
". . . a 6-2 junior from Rocky Mount . . . "the
voice from the TV said. . .And the crowd responded,
appropriately.
Yonakor's first rebound brought the crowd to its feet,
and from there on Marquette fouls brought chants of
"you, you," and Tar Heel baskets brought oohs and
aahs.
Phil Ford's first spectacular lay-up met with
pandemonium.
"If we win, this town won't sleep tonight," Charlie
Scheeler of the Connor crowd said.
"After we win the game, I'm going to pin a note to my
shirt please return to 1 10 Connor,' " Bruce Johnston,
a sophomore, said.
But the expectations of the first-half crowd gave way
to more solemn half-time comments.
"They ought to change that goal."
"What's the matter with it. Bill?"
"The ball won't go in."
A quiet set in as Tans absorbed the 10-point hall-time
deficit. Seats and beer cans were exchanged for
bathrooms, and the crowd braced itself for the second
half.
In the basement of the Carolina Union approximately
80 people screamed and cheered as the Tar Heels
stormed back to within six at 39-33 in the second half.
Jump ball. . .possession. . .the Marquette lead was
cut to four. . .a time out
"We gonna do it, man, we gonna do it."
And later, a jumper to put the Heels ahead by two. All
hell broke loose... The crowd fell into rhythmic
clapping. GO, GO, GO. .. .
The four corners brought the Union crowd back down
to a restless, restrained rumble... and as the minutes
slipped away, so did the score. So did the crowd.
The final Walter Davis shot, and UNC points, revived
frustrated fans for a last cheer. . .But it was over.
Uptown a different scene prevailed. Within minutes
after the game, a throng of approximately 6,000 packed
Franklin Street splotched Carolina blue and filled
with bottles and cans to listen to three bands and
watch a bonfire in front of Silent Sam.
"I've never seen this many drunk people in my life,"
one observer remarked. Meanwhile, the crowd
continued to crash bottles into the gutter.
A policeman directing traffic at the corner of Mallette
and Cameron was injured and taken to N.C. Memorial
Hospital. At the corner of Rosemary and Columbia
Streets a girl was hit by a driverless car upset by attempts
to turn it over.
"Nobody seems to be really mad," Officer William E.
Frick said.
Hanging out of an overcrowded car leaving the Union
parking lot, one fan left the game behind with his final
words, "We're No. 2."
But it was a mix of the "We're No. 2" and the "we're
really No. 1" that remained.
"We'll be back next year."
"Man, we did it this year."
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