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Basketball
Virginia
N.C. State
76
75
Wake Forest
Maryland
Arizona
Duke
75 Georgia Tech 90 Georgetown
61 Notre Dame 80 St John's
63 South Carolina 77 Seton Hall
55 Louisville 73 Providence
77 Missouri
75 Oklahoma
97 Indiana
84 Minnesota
75 Michigan
62 Wisconsin
92 LSU
70 UNLV
84 Syracuse
80 Kentucky
88 Iowa
87 Purdue
89
73;
84:
67
Sports
Monday
Landry ousted as coach
of Cowboys, page 10
14The Daily Tar Heel Monday, February 27, 1989
o3 Heel
Divers aid defense of
ACC championship
mmeK go deep far tot
e
By NEIL AMATO
Staff Writer
When all was said and done, diving
did it.
The boys on the three-meter board
gave the UNC swim team a 694-681.5
lead over Virginia with one event to
go. The No. 16 Tar Heels then won
that final event, the 400-yard freestyle
relay, to capture their second ACC
title in as many years before 1,000
fans at Koury Natatorium.
North Carolina finished with 734
points while 22nd-ranked Virginia
was the runner-up with 713.5. No. 19
Clemson came in third with 606.5
points, and N.C. State (568), Mary
land (413), Duke (204) and Georgia
Tech (36) rounded out the field.
The Tar Heels' diving corps scored
48 points while Virginia, which led
the ACC Championships until the
event, could manage only seven in the
three-meter competition. This turna
round resulted in a Tar Heel lead with
only the relay remaining.
Sophomores Nunzio Esposto and
Chris Morris led the divers' charge,
placing fifth and sixth, respectively.
Junior Ted Hautau finished seventh,
and senior Andy Hunter came in
10th.
"Although they didn't dive as well
as they could have, I'm happy it made
a difference in the meet," UNC diving
coach Randy Emerson said. "I'm
excited that it helped us win the meet.
This is a good (diving) program. All
the credit for building this program
goes to Coach Comfort."
Swimming coach Frank Comfort
was ecstatic about not only the divers'
performance, but his squad's overall
showing.
"Anytime you win by twenty
points, it's a complete team effort,"
Comfort said. "I'm thankful to
everyone who helped us out tonight."
Although the Tar Heels won only
two events on Saturday and four of
20 for the entire meet, it was their
quality depth that brought home the
championship. North Carolina
placed consistently high in numerous
swims as other schools copped firsts.
With the championship's scoring
set-up, it was better to place several
swimmers in the top spots than to
just win the event.
But winning certainly doesn't hurt.
One Tar Heel who found that out
was John Davis. A sophomore from
Weston, Ct., Davis captured three
individual wins and anchored the Tar
Heels come-from-behind victory in
the 400 freestyle relay.
Davis placed first in the 200-yard
.individual medley and the 100- and
200-yard freestyles. Now a two-time
champion in the individual medley
and 200 free, Davis set Koury pool
and ACC-meet records in both
events, with times of 1:49.37 and
1 :37.22, respectively.
Davis teamed with Jed Guenther,
Tony Monasterio and Chris Hime
bauch to win the relay in a pool and
meet record time of 2:58.69.
"It was my job to perform for my
team," Davis said. "Getting up on the
blocks and having my teammates
screaming for me to win gets me really
pumped up. I wanted to win this meet
for my team, not for myself."
Although Davis swam superbly, it
was not enough to earn him ACC
Swimmer of the Year honors. The
award was garnered by Virginia's
Jack Jackson for his two individual
wins and participation in the Wahoos'
three victorious relays.
Jackson set ACC and ACC-meet
records in the 100-yard butterfly with
a time of 47.68 and broke the Koury
pool record in the 200 fly in 1:46.78.
The Cavaliers, whose mentor is
ACC Coach of the Year Mark
Bernardino, won nine events in the
meet but couldn't hold the lead over
the Tar Heels' depth.
A perfect example of this was the
200 backstroke. Although the Wahoo
duo of Glenn Houck and Greg
Indrisano finished 1-2, the Tar Heels
gained points by placing five
swimmers in the top 15.
Virginia, which went into Friday's
competition trailing UNC by only 4.5
points, vaulted to a 14.5 point bulge
behind six wins in seven events,
including record-breaking firsts in the
200 medley relay and the 800 free
relay.
The Wahoos' 200 medley team of
Houck, Derek Kennedy, Jackson and
Tom Schellin established a pool
record time of 1:30.48 and the 800
free team of Dave McCarty, Jackson,
Houck and Eric Deglau set ACC
meet and pool marks with a 6:33.53
clocking.
The only non-Cavalier winner on
Friday was Davis, who placed first
in the 200 free.
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DTH David Surowiecki
UNC swimmers, divers, coaches and fans celebrate the Tar Heels' successful defense of their ACC championship
n
Reveuwel Heels bomnilb Clemmsoini
By MIKE BERARDINO
Senior Writer
Dean Smith has never been known
as a vengeful man, but his Tar Heel
basketball team sure seems to be
taking this retribution thing quite
seriously.
Saturday afternoon in the Smith
Center, No. 5 North Carolina over
came a slow start and went on to
pound Clemson, 100-86, behind Steve
Bucknall's career-high 30 points.
The win, which stretched UNC's
home mastery over the Tigers to 34
straight games, moved North Carol
ina to 24-5 overall, 9-3 in the Atlantic
Coast Conference. The Tar Heels
now own a one-game conference lead
over N.C. State, which suffered an
upset home defeat to Virginia
Sunday.
Saturday's win also avenged a
painful three-point loss at Clemson
3'2 weeks ago.
We saw the film (Friday) and I
especially remember seeing them
celebrate," Bucknall said, referring to
the 85-82 loss on Feb. 1. "We decided
not to let that happen again today."
Just as in earlier reversals over
Missouri and Virginia this season,
UNC benefitted from the home
crowd advantage and simply refused
to fall a second time to the same team.
"It's always good to win a game,
but it's especially nice to beat some
one who has beaten us before,"
Bucknall said. "We always want to
show that we're improving."
Saturday, just , as in the first
meeting, the aggressive Tiger front
line outrebounded UNC, 46-36. But
. this time, sophomore behemoth Dale
Davis was held to 1 1 points and seven
rebounds, a far cry from the 21-21
totals he posted in Littlejohn
Coliseum.
Bucknall was the star of the
rematch. The 6-6 senior from London
added nine assists and typically
harrassing defense to his unusually
high point total. Bucknall was 7 of
10 from the floor, including 5 for 8
from three-point range, and hit all
11 of his foul shots. v
Bucknall canned his first three
shot's of the game all from the
bonusphere to help UNC stay close
to the hot-shooting Tigers in the early
going.
But back-to-back treys from Clem
son's Derrick Forrest (a team-high 23
points) and Ricky Jones gave the
visitors a comfortable working mar
gin, and, after Rick Fox countered
with a short bank shot, David
Young's 18-footer from the left wing
gave the Tigers a 25-1 8 lead with 1 3:06
remaining.
Suddenly, Clemson's cocky shoot
ers went cold, unable to throw the
ball in the proverbial ocean for the
next 10 minutes. The Tigers missed
their next nine attempts from the
floor and clanged four front-end
bonus opportunities from the foul
line.
Meanwhile, UNC was busy reeling
off a 23-3 surge that put the Tar Heels
in command for good. Jeff Lebo's
three-pointer at .the 10:43 mark tied
matters at 25, and J.R. ReidVfree
throw at 8: 15 gave UNC a 26-25 lead.
From there, North -Carolina
pounded the ball inside to Scott
Williams (six straight points), Pete
Chilcutt and Reid. Only twice more
during the decisive run did UNC risk
an outside attempt , Bucknall's
tough 15-footer in traffic at the 5:00
mark and Lebo's three-pointer from
the right wing that made it 41-28 with
3:31 left.
Elden Campbell finally- ended
Clemson's 10-minute field goal
drought with a dunk with 3:06
remaining, but Bucknall added seven
more points in the halfs waning
See BASKETBALL page 10
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V- '- ..a,. -J
Bucknall shakes up defensive
image with 30-point explosion
DTH David Surowiecki
UNC's Steve Bucknall (20) has a hands-on approach to defending Clemson's Marlon Cash (12)
By ANDREW PODOLSKY
Assistant Sports Editor
OK, skeptics, you can stop kidding
about Steve Bucknall's offensive
ineptitude now.
It may have taken him four years,
but the man whom everyone used to
rip on for being a clumsy, slow, bad
ball-handling guard finally came into
his own Saturday to lead North
Carolina to a 100-86 blasting of
Clemson.
The 6-foot-6 Englishman traded
his image as a simple solid defensive
standout and part-time scorer for the
more glamorous (albeit unofficial)
moniker of offensive catalyst with a
career performance.
Let's go to the stat sheet: the senior
guard hit a career-high 30 points on
7-of-10 shooting from the field
(including a scorching 5-of-8 from
three-point range) and a perfect 11
of 1 1 from the foul line.
But Bucknall's performance was
not limited to scoring. He maintained
his tenacious defensive style on the
Tiger guards while leading the Tar
Heels in assists (with nine) and steals
(with two).
Bucknall took this success in stride
as he lounged about the locker room
after the game and patiently
explained to the dozens of eager
reporters that surrounded him that
his performance is not all that
noteworthy.
In fact, Bucknall looked rather
stately. He wasn't smiling,, slapping
high-fives or whooping it up. He
would have looked more in place in
front of a roaring fire, wearing a
monogrammed smoking jacket with
a big pipe in his hand rather than
in a sweaty uniform with size 13 AAA
Converses. It was just business as
usual.
"I still think that I am a defensive
player first. The team definitely needs
me more on defense than it does on
offense," he said.
"The way 1 look at it, if they give
me an open three-point shot, 111 shoot
it. IVe simply been hitting that shot
all year, it's no big secret. If they don't
give me the shot, 111 drive to the
hoop," he explained.
Bucknall is right. People should
have noticed by now that he's been
consistently improving all year.
Saturday's result was just an explo
sion that has been a long time coming.
But that point was missed by
Clemson's lone senior, Jerry Pryor.
When told of Buck's stats, Pryor was
astonished. "We probably looked for
(Bucknall) to get 12 or 14, but 30,
That's unreal," Pryor said. "I can't
see 30. That was a very quiet 30. I
thought he had 18 or something."
It appears that many people have
overlooked Bucknall in his senior
year. They better start noticing now.
Bucknall, who averages 12.5 ppg
this year, has scored in double figures
22 times this year (including 17 of
the last 20 games). Including yester
day's performance, he has scored
more than 15 points in his last four
ACC games (30 against Clemson, 16
against Maryland, 21 against Wake
Forest and 19 against Virginia).
It's not as if he has come out of
Saturday. Considering last year's
statistics, Bucknall is easily the most
improved player on the UNC team,
perhaps in the entire ACC.
But a big final year is to be expected
from a senior on the tilth-ranked
team in the nation. That fact has not
escaped Bucknall. "1 guess they (the
team) kind of look to me now. Tjii
a senior and it's my job." he said. ;
His improvement goes beyond the
intangible leadership asset, however.
Bucknall's 1987-88 statistics included
9.1 ppg and 3.7 assists per game.So
far in 1988-1989, Bucknall is averag
ing 13. 1 ppg (fourth on the team) and
leads the Tar Heels with an average
of 4.8 assists per game. l
Now for the kicker: Steve Bucknall
has apparently learned to like -Jo
shoot (and make, for that matter) the
three-point shot this year. In his flfst
three seasons, Bucknall only
attempted 20 three-pointers. So 'fjar
this year, he has already tried I3
treys, hitting 48 of them for an
average of 42 percent.
In fact, 66 of his 108 shots (61
percent) in ACC games have come
from beyond 19"9". Can you say
"long-bomb fever?" Steve Bucknall
sure can. :
But more importantly, will other
teams begin to notice the not-so-quiet
secret that Steve Bucknall will score,
and score often, if left alone?