Roy Williams.North Carolina scrapped out a 60-56 win against a deliberate Virginia Tech team to give the Tar Heels their 11th straight victory.
The Tar Heels held the lead most of the way and while the game result rarely seemed in danger, they couldn’t pull away either. Poor foul shooting ensured that.
Carolina missed seven second-half free throws including five in the last minute and a half as Virginia Tech made it iffy at the end. Leslie McDonald hit the second of two free throws with 4.8 seconds left to wrap up the win.
“I screamed at Leslie for him to hit the free throw,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “That was very intelligent.”
But he was frustrated that the Virginia Tech zone defense bothered his club throughout and his players couldn’t seem to hit free throws down the stretch.
“It was a workmanlike effort for us,” Williams said, praising James Michael McAdoo’s second half effort.
McAdoo scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half including eight during a four-minute stretch late.
A power dunk by McAdoo with 6:56 left put the Heels up by nine, their largest lead of the game, at 49-40.
Marcus Paige.North Carolina had it, lost it and thanks to Marcus Paige got it back again as the Tar Heels defeated NC State 85-84 in overtime.
More precisely, it was Paige outdueling State’s TJ Warren as the two went back and forth in the second half, especially late in the game and in overtime.
Warren, who scored 36 points, calmly canned two free throws at the end of regulation. Paige, who scored a career-high 35 points, drove to the hoop to score the winning bucket with less than a second to go in overtime.
“I felt like we gave one away and then at the end stole one,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.
The Tar Heels trailed by eight, 34-26, at the half – a half that saw Paige score just four points. But Paige proceeded to drain seven threes in the second half including back-to-back ones that drew Carolina to within a point at 52-51.
A driving lay-in by JP Tokoto with seven minutes to go put UNC up for the first time since it was 5-4 early.
But the lead went back and forth the rest of the way until it appeared the Tar Heels had a good chance to win it in regulation. Paige hit two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to put the Heels up 71-69.
After UNC’s Leslie McDonald knocked the inbounds pass out of bounds, State had but 1.5 seconds to score from the opposite end of the court. Before the ball was inbounded, however, McDonald fouled Warren, who hit the free throws to force overtime.
“I felt like we had the game won and then we made one of the silliest fouls I’ve ever seen,” Williams said.
A couple of minutes later it was the Pack’s turn to feel like they had it won up by six at 77-71 with three minutes left and 80-74 with two minutes left. They were up again by six with 1:39 left following a Warren bank shot which made it 82-76.
Paige hit a three and a pair of free throws to make it 83-81 State with just 41 seconds left.
Warren turned the ball over against Carolina’s full-court pressure. After an official timeout to review the play, James Michael McAdoo scored inside on a set play to tie it at 83-all with 31 seconds left.
McAdoo fouled Warren along the baseline with less than eight seconds left but Warren hit only one to put State up 84-83. That led to Paige’s heroics as he drove the left side of the lane for a contested layup.
“I loved our effort,” State coach Mark Gottfried said. “I loved our competitiveness. I hurt for our guys right now because I thought they laid it all on the line.”
A near giddy Paige was very excited in the locker room, stating that he wasn’t going to sleep. “To kind of shut the fans up was very satisfying,” he said.
Ruffin McNeil.ECU head Football coach Ruffin McNeill will speak at the Wednesday, Feb. 26 meeting of the Raleigh Sports Club. McNeill will discuss the Pirate’s football program, NCAA playoff/bowl structure and conference realignments.
The RSC will honor local a Wake County student athlete as the student athlete of the week for outstanding achievement in the classroom, community and on the field.
Meetings are held in Bradley Hall in Highland UMC, 1901 Ridge Road at the intersection of Lake Boone Trail, just inside the Raleigh Beltline. Buffet lines open at 11:30 a.m. and the meeting starts at 12 noon. See http://www.raleighsportsclub.org/ for details.
Leslie McDonald.North Carolina, coming off a big win over Duke fewer than two days earlier, responded with a high-scoring rout over Wake Forest, 105-72.
Six Tar Heels – Leslie McDonald, Kennedy Meeks, Brice Johnson, Marcus Paige, JP Tokoto and James Michael McAdoo – scored in double figures for the first time this season as the home team extended a 19-point halftime lead to its largest margin of 33 points by game’s end.
UNC trailed 6-4 early but after a McDonald three put the Heels up for the first time at 9-6, the Tar Heels never looked back.
“In the first half early, I didn’t think we were really into it,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Then we played better defense and we just shot the ball really well.”
Hot shooting – including from beyond the arc and from the free throw line – quickly put Carolina in control.
Leslie McDonald.North Carolina had committed unforced turnovers and missed free throws badly but in the last five minutes the Tar Heels played almost flawlessly, outscoring Duke 18-6 to beat their chief rival 74-66.
“That’s a great, great rivalry,” UNC coach Roy Williams said at game’s end. “I loved our guy’s composure down the stretch.”
After a ragged first half, North Carolina trailed by seven and then by 11 in the second half before chipping away at the Blue Devil lead.
Down 60-56 with less than five minutes to go, Leslie McDonald, who twice had missed the front end of one-and-one situations, went to the foul line and calmly drained two free throws to start the run.
James Michael McAdoo scored inside with 4:22 left to tie it at 60-60 and McDonald sank a 15-footer with 3:50 to go that gave Carolina its first lead since midway through the first half.
Marcus Paige banged in a step-back jumper and followed it with a drive-by layup to keep the Heels out front at 66-62 with 1:28 left.
The Tar Heels, who had missed seven free throws in the first half, hit six in a row down the stretch – four by freshman Nate Britt and two by Paige – as they won going away. Please click here for more on the game.
ESPN’s enhanced coverage of No. 5 Duke at North Carolina on Thursday, Feb. 20, and undefeated No. 1 Syracuse at No. 5 Duke on Saturday, Feb. 22, will include a live studio presence from the sites of both games. Coverage will begin from Chapel Hill on Thursday morning with Rece Davis, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg providing live reports and analysis through the day and halftime around the rescheduled Duke at North Carolina game (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET).
The crew of Chris Cotter, Jay Bilas and Greenberg will then move to Duke’s campus where they will appear across ESPN platforms from Friday morning through Saturday in anticipation of that day’s Syracuse-Duke rematch (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Saturday’s 6 p.m. College GameDay Covered by State Farm telecast will derive from inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, with the trio also handling halftime live from the court. The crew of Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale, along with reporter Shannon Spake, will call the game.
Syracuse remained unbeaten and assumed the No. 1 spot in the national rankings following a 91-89 overtime win in the first meeting between the programs on February 1. The game averaged nearly 4.8 million viewers, making it the network’s third most-viewed regular-season men’s college basketball game on record.
TJ Warren.Clemson went on a 12-0 run that spanned seven minutes of clock in the second half to defeat NC State 73-56. That coming after the Wolfpack held a 33-32 halftime lead.
The Pack went on a 12-4 run at the end of the first half to lead for the first time but they couldn’t keep it going in the second half.
Clemson scored the first seven points of the second half and never looked back.
The Tigers worked the lead up to 14 before State, pressing full court, went on a 7-0 of its own to cut it to 56-49.
But midway through the half, the Wolfpack went cold and failed to score for seven minutes and it was never close down the stretch.
T.J. Warren led the Pack with 20 points and five rebounds, but he also committed six turnovers.
The Wolfpack falls to 16-10 overall and 6-7 in the ACC.
In what North Carolina coach Roy Williams called a “bizarre game,” the Tar Heels overcame a 15-point first-half deficit without foul-plagued James Michael McAdoo to defeat Florida State 81-75 on the road. (2/17)
Coach Williams’ 300th victory wasn’t the easiest of his career.Trailing 21-6 at the second TV timeout, the Carolina players heard an earful from Coach Williams, who did a lot of yelling rather than talking Xs and Os.
The Tar Heels responded by chipping away at the lead, mainly by getting the ball down low to freshman Kennedy Meeks, who scored on a nice feed from Marcus Paige to cut the lead to just 36-33 at the first half buzzer.
Carolina kept it close early in the second half and then managed to tie it on a Desmond Hubert dunk follow and took the lead for the first time on a Nate Britt swish from the right baseline that made it 57-55 with 10 minutes left in the game.
Three triples by Paige over a three-minute period gave the Tar Heels their biggest cushion at 70-62 with less than six minutes to play.
It was Meeks’ best game of the year as he went 11 of 12 for 23 points while Paige scored 20. McAdoo, who had scored double figures in 17 straight games, fouled out without scoring.
Jabari Parker.North Carolina junior James Michael McAdoo has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Player of the Week, while Duke’s Jabari Parker earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth consecutive week.
McAdoo received ACC Player of the Week honors after his game highs of 24 points and 12 rebounds in Saturday’s 75-71 homecourt win over 25th-ranked Pittsburgh. The Norfolk, Va., native posted his fifth double-double of the season while connecting on 11 of 18 shots from the floor. He had seven offensive rebounds and just one turnover in 37 minutes and scored six of his 24 points in the final 4:44, including back-to-back buckets for the Tar Heels after Pitt had gone on a 7-0 run to cut UNC’s lead to 63-61.
Duke’s Parker scored a game-high 23 points and added eight rebounds, one assist, two blocks and a steal in a 69-67 win over Maryland on Saturday. The Chicago native knocked down a pair of 3-point field goals and went 9-of-10 from the free throw line as Duke overcame a late three-point deficit to earn its 20th win of the season. With Duke trailing, 60-59, with just over 4:30 remaining, Parker picked up a loose ball and found Rasheed Sulaimon for a three-point field goal to give Duke a one-point lead. With 1:17 remaining and Duke trailing by one, Parker pulled through from the left wing for an emphatic dunk between three Maryland defenders to give Duke a 68-67 lead. He added a defensive rebound with 59 seconds left and added a block with five seconds remaining as Duke’s defense held Maryland scoreless over the final 2:45 of play.
McAdoo, who has scored in double figures in 17 consecutive games, earned his first ACC Player of the Week honor of the season and the third by a North Carolina student-athlete.
Parker now has 15 20-point games, tied for the third-most by a freshman in league history. He has 10 total ACC weekly honors, having been named ACC Rookie of the Week eight times and ACC Player of the Week twice. Georgia Tech’s Kenny Anderson (1990) and North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough (2006) share the record for ACC Rookie of the Week selections with 10.
No. 5 NC State baseball fell 3-0 in its season opener, on Sunday against Canisius at Doak Field at Dail Park.
Coach Elliott Avent.Trea Turner supplied most of the offense provided by the Wolfpack (0-1) in the loss. Turner went 3-for-4 on the day with three base hits including a bunt single to lead off the eighth, and followed with his first stolen base of the year.
Carlos Rodon (0-1) drew the opening day start and took the loss after allowing one earned over six innings. Rodon finished the day with three runs on four hits, striking out six while walking one.
Andrew Woeck pitched flawlessly as the only arm out of the Wolfpack bullpen, fanning four of nine batters faced and walking none. Woeck shut out the Griffins (1-0) for the final three frames, limiting Canisius to one hit.
Brett Austin, Kyle Cavanaugh, Andrew Knizner, and Garrett Suggs each contributed one hit on the afternoon. Cavanaugh, Knizner, and Suggs were the only true freshmen in the Pack’s opening day lineup.
Canisius starter Rohn Pierce (1-0) claimed the win on seven shutout innings. Alex Godzak earned the save after allowing two hits over the eighth and ninth.
NC State returns to action on Monday, February 17 with a home game against Canisius beginning at 1 p.m. Admission is free to the public. All seating will be general admission.
