Error-prone Tar Heels advance by Harvard

justinjacksonDespite committing 17 turnovers and blowing a 16-point lead, North Carolina got a fast-break bucket in the closing seconds to sneak by Harvard 67-65 to advance in the NCAA Tournament. (3/14)

The Tar Heels shot 55 percent and seemed to be in command at 52-36 in the second half. But turnovers and fouls hampered the Heels as Harvard was able to take a 65-63 lead on a four-point play with just 1:15 left. It was the Crimson’s first lead of the game.

Harvard’s 16-5 run over six minutes culminated with an off balanced three by Siyani Chambers and a foul by UNC’s Marcus Paige, who was fighting his way around a screen, which led to the Crimson’s 18th made free throw of the game.

UNC freshman Justin Jackson came right back with a bucket in the lane that tied the score at 65-all with 1:03 to play.

Carolina’s defense finally got a stop. (Harvard scored on nine of its last 11 possessions.) Carolina’s offense turned the long rebound into a fast break from JP Tokoto to Paige to Jackson for an open dunk with 23 seconds left.

The Heels got another defensive stop and had a chance to wrap up the game but Kennedy Meeks missed the front end of a one-and-one with 12 seconds left. Harvard had a chance to win as Wesley Saunders put up a three from straight away but it banked off the backboard and the front rim and UNC escaped.

“Right now I feel like I won the lottery,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “It’s the luckiest I’ve ever felt after a basketball game by entire life.”

He praised Paige for a key three pointer that broke a four-minute streak late without a bucket and he praised Jackson for his two buckets in the last minute that won it. But, he said, “if we’d have played a little bit better it might not have come down to that.”

For the most part, the Tar Heels dominated as they outrebounded Harvard 35-26 and outshot Harvard 55 to 38 percent. But Harvard got 29 points off turnovers, compared to just six for Carolina and Harvard got 18 points from the foul line, compared to just eight for Carolina.

Jackson led the Tar Heels with 14 points while Paige scored 12 and Meeks chipped in 10. But Meeks also turned the ball over five times, the most of any game this season.

Saunders led Harvard with 24 points, including his team’s first 10 points of the game.

Carolina started the game well, getting out to a 21-7 lead midway through the first half. Isaiah Hicks provided Carolina with a lift with Meeks and Brice Johnson not playing well as he came off the bench for nine first-half points. The Tar Heels settled for an 11-point lead at the half, 36-25.

In the second half, a Tokoto steal led to a Paige layup on the fastbreak that gave the Heels a 16-point cushion at 52-36. But little went right for the Heels after that until the late-game heroics by Paige and Jackson.

The Tar Heels, 25-11, advance to the round of 32 on Saturday.

Box score

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