University of North Carolina Athletics
Car-O-Lines: Capel, Peppers Sparked Win Over Terps
February 10, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2001
By Rick Brewer
Over the years, North Carolina's series with Maryland has produced some of the most entertaining and high-level basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Saturday afternoon's game in the Smith Center proved to be no exception.
After falling behind with 11:21 to go in the first half, the Tar Heels could not regain the lead until Brendan Haywood scored on an offensive rebound with seven seconds left for a 43-42 edge at intermission. Carolina never trailed again in scoring an impressive 96-82 victory.
Coach Matt Doherty got important plays from almost everyone he used as his team ran its record to 21-2.
Julius Peppers, starting in place of the injured Kris Lang, was spectacular early and had a career-high18 points.
Maryland did a nice defensive job on Joseph Forte in the game's early stages. But, he still finished with 23 points, scoring on slashing drives which resulted in sweeping layups or short jump shots. Those same drives to the basket also got him to the free throw line where he was perfect on nine attempts.
Ronald Curry, Max Owens, Kris Lang and Haywood also were especially effective against a Maryland team that has now dropped four of its last five games and fallen to 15-8 for the season.
But, the biggest Tar Heel star was Jason Capel with a career-high 27 points and eight rebounds. He was dynamic during the game's middle stages when the Tar Heels were coming from behind and building a second half lead that eventually reached 16 points.
Capel didn't score his first point until 7:13 remained in the first half when he got open for a jumper from the lane. But, he then scored 13 of 18 Carolina's next points as his team cut a 31-23 Maryland advantage to 42-41. A conventional three-point play by Forte and a monster dunk by Peppers were the only other Tar Heel points in this stretch.
Haywood then put Carolina ahead with his offensive rebound in the final seconds.
"Although we shot well as a team (58.6 percent) in the first half, I thought Joe (Forte) might be getting a little frustrated," said Doherty afterwards.
Forte had gotten just five shots in the first 20 minutes and hit two of them.
"I was sitting on the bench before the second half started trying to think of a play we could run to get him going," explained Doherty. "Brendan leaned over and made a suggestion. That was what we ran and it freed him for that little running one-hander to start the half."
Forte, in fact, scored Carolina's first six points of the half as his team bolted to a seven-point lead.
The lead reached nine at the 11:52 mark when Capel scored on a driving dunk off the baseline. It was a tremendous two-handed jam that forced Terp Coach Gary Williams to call timeout and, hopefully, kill some of the game's emotion.
And there was plenty of emotion in this game. Maryland desperately needed a win and Carolina was trying to remain unbeaten in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
The crowd was as raucous as it has been all year and on an unusually warm February afternoon, the building was almost as hot as Carolina's shooting.
Games played on weekend afternoons always tend to make the crowd better and fans got into this one early. It was reminiscent of games these two schools have played in the past--when Dean Smith and Lefty Driesell were on the opposing benches and guys like Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Len Bias, Mike O'Koren, Al Wood, Albert King, Buck Williams, Charlie Scott, Walt Williams and Antawn Jamison were making plays that belonged on highlight films.
The dunk by Capel gave him 20 points for the day in a stretch of just over 15 minutes. He would later add a layup on a great pass from Curry, drill his fourth three-pointer and score on another lay-in when Forte fed him breaking down the lane.
He made 10 of 14 shots from the field and four of five from three-point range. As a team, Carolina finished with a shooting percentage of 58.3, hit seven of 10 three-pointers and made 19 of 20 foul shots.
"They're an excellent basketball team and when they shoot free throws like that, you're really in trouble," said Williams. "They've improved a great deal since we last saw them. I think Curry and Peppers having more time away from football to get in basketball shape has been a big difference.
"Capel and Forte are such good shooters that you have to defend them. Then you have problems with those big guys inside. I never saw Peppers in high school, but he had to have been a great basketball player. He does things on the court you can't teach."
Peppers had 10 points before Capel ever scored to help keep Carolina close. One basket came when he sprinted across the baseline, took a pass from Curry and somehow put in an unbelievable twisting reverse layup with three Maryland defenders all around him.
Maryland, meanwhile, got solid play on the road from Lonnie Baxter, Steve Blake and reserve Drew Nicholas. But, on this day, that wouldn't be enough.
The Terps have seemingly had trouble recovering from a stunning overtime loss to Duke. They apparently had the Blue Devils beaten until Blake fouled out with 1:51 to play and his team up by 10 points. Sparked by Jason Williams, Duke scored 10 straight points in the game's final 54 seconds to force overtime and then won 98-96.
Still, this is a very talented Maryland team, one which many felt would be a national title contender. Maryland could easily go on a winning streak at any time and certainly figures to be a major challenger in the ACC Tournament.
Carolina now gets a much-need eight-day break before playing at Clemson next Sunday. Lang, who did not start against the Terps because of an ankle problem, should be improved next weekend. But, all the players need rest. Plus, some quality practice time should be beneficial for the stretch run of conference games.
