University of North Carolina Athletics
View From The Press Box
February 4, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2000
North Carolina staged one of those memorable comebacks for which the program is so well-known, only to see it fall short in a 90-86 overtime loss to Duke Thursday night.
However, even the defeat may bode well for the rest of the season.
The Tar Heels played their worst half of basketball of the season in the game's first 20 minutes and trailed the powerful Blue Devils, 41-24. Duke would increase that lead to 19 points, 50-31, with 14:41 in the game.
Less than a minute later Jason Capel would pick up his fourth foul and Carolina's prospects were about as bright as the black ice which still peppered parts of this town after last week's record snowfall.
The Tar Heels had shot a miserable 37.9 percent from the field in the first half and committed 14 turnovers to only six for Duke. Ed Cota, maybe the best pure point guard in the country, had six of those to only four assists. Carolina missed its only three free throw attempts of the first half and proceeded to miss its first three of the second period.
"Our players were psyched and ready to play," said UNC Coach Bill Guthridge afterwards. "Maybe that was the problem we were too ready. We were much more relaxed in the second half and it showed in the way we played."
Carolina began to slowly cut into Duke's 19-point lead. Cota was sensational in the comeback, finishing with a career-high 21 points. He also had four assists in the second half and only one turnover.
Joseph Forte began to hit from everywhere, scoring on an assortment of pull-up jumpers, three-pointers and drives to the basket. Brendan Haywood, limited to one rebound in the first half when he was saddled with three fouls, grabbed nine more before finally fouling out with 2:50 to play.
Guthridge took a calculated risk with 11:32 in the game when he reinserted Capel into the lineup despite his four fouls. The Duke lead was still 16 at the time and Guthridge knew if his team was to win it had to start a surge.
Lang quickly scored on a jump hook and then Cota made the type of play that a star player has to make. After a steal Cota had the ball on a two-on-one fast break with Capel. Normally, Cota would have let Capel get the basket. But, not wanting to put Capel in the position of possibly drawing a charge and his fifth foul, Cota gave him the ball midway between midcourt and the top of the key. Capel then became the ballhandler and fed Cota for a driving layup from the left side.
Seconds later Cota was feeding Lang for another hook shot and the Blue Devil lead had been sliced to 10. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was forced to take a timeout.
That didn't slow the Tar Heels. Cota drilled a three-pointer to cut the lead to seven. Chris Carrawell, who was dynamic for the Blue Devils, pushed that back to 10. But, it was obvious the Tar Heels were not going away.
The lead was seven when Haywood fouled out. But, Cota fed Lang for a dunk at the 2:25 mark. When Forte found Capel open on the right wing with 1:47 in the game, his three-pointer made it 68-66.
"We told our players at the half that North Carolina wouldn't back down," said Krzyzewski. "We knew they were going to come after us and they did. I don't think it was a matter of us backing down. It was just their defense in the second half. We couldn't make shots and they were hitting big-time shots."
Duke did push back to a four-point lead when Carrawell found Nate James for a layup. But, Lang scored on an offensive rebound with 1:08 left to again cut the margin to two. With 44 second to play a Carrawell jumper gave the Blue Devils a 72-68 lead.
"That was a great shot," said Krzyzewski. "I thought it was the game-winner. I was wrong."
Max Owens drove the lane and handed the ball off to Capel for a layup with 25 seconds to go. The Tar Heels fouled Jason Williams with 18 seconds remaining in the game. He made one of two free throws for a 73-70 lead.
Carolina rushed into the frontcourt and with two seconds on the clock, Forte, the precocious freshman from Greenbelt, Md., fired a three-pointer from deep behind the right of the circle with two Duke defenders jumping at him. It caught nothing but the bottom of the net and forced overtime.
"It was important for us to get ahead in overtime," said Krzyzewski. "I didn't want to get behind over here the way Carolina was playing."
The entire overtime was a struggle for Carolina. Carlos Boozer scored seven of Duke's 17 points as the Tar Heels couldn't match his strength inside with Haywood on the bench. Still, Guthridge coached a masterpiece and Forte's layup with 10.8 seconds left cut the Duke lead to 88-86. But, forced to foul whoever had the ball, the Tar Heels put Mike Dunleavy on the line and his two free throws with 8.7 seconds to go basically sealed the Duke win.
"We just fell into too big of a hole in the first half," said Guthridge. "We had 33 percent loss of ball in that half and then just six percent afterwards.
"Coming into the game, I thought Duke was a truly great team, maybe the best in the country. Now I'm more convinced of it. They can hurt you in so many ways and Mike is doing a good job bringing his freshmen along."
Still, the game showed how good Carolina can also be when the team is operating on all cylinders. The Tar Heels have played one of the most difficult schedules in the country and it doesn't get any easier with two Atlantic Coast Conference road games at Clemson and N.C. State coming up. But, if the Tar Heels can perform as they did in the second half against Duke, they have a great chance for a strong finish.
