University of North Carolina Athletics
Ugly Doherty Will Take Wins Like That Anytime
March 1, 2001 | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2001
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
What many people described as an ugly basketball game ended up being a thing of beauty for North Carolina Coach Matt Doherty Wednesday night.
The Tar Heels topped N.C. State at the Smith Center, 76-63, to assure themselves of a first-place tie in the final regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
Carolina can claim an outright regular-season title with a win here Sunday over Duke.
At times the action Wednesday wasn't very pretty. The Wolfpack committed 18 turnovers and the Tar Heels had 19. Plus, there were other occasions when passes were deflected, but recovered by the offensive team.
"Give N.C. State credit," said Doherty afterwards. "They play very hard defensively. They're quick and athletic. I also liked our defense, especially in the first half. We did a lot of trapping, like they did. The result may not have seemed like wonderful basketball to some fans. But, I'm happy with the outcome."
Carolina is now 13-2 in conference play, while second-place Duke is 12-3. A win Sunday would give the Tar Heels sole possession of first place in the final standings.
Even if Duke wins and ties for the top spot, Carolina would be the number one seed in the ACC Tournament next week. The next tie-breaker after head-to-head competition would be how the teams fared against the third-place team. The Tar Heels swept their two games against number three Maryland, while the Blue Devils split their two games with the Terps.
"We had a number of goals entering the season," said Doherty. " The regular-season title was one of them. We'd like to win it outright and that means taking care of our next short-range goal--Duke on Sunday."
Doherty knows his team must do a better job of handling the basketball this weekend to accomplish that.
"We can't afford to make sloppy passes or handle the ball poorly and beat Duke," he said. "We did that tonight, but were fortunate that our own defense caused a number of State turnovers, as well. We'd like to think we can do that every game, but we certainly can't count on it. That's especially true against an experienced team like Duke."
State actually led a good portion of the first half Wednesday night. However, the Tar Heels finally took the lead for good 5:20 before halftime when Joseph Forte hit a pull-up jumper off a fast break.
Carolina had only a three-point advantage with 30 seconds to play. But, Ronald Curry drove the lane with 19.1 seconds remaining to push that lead to five, 32-27. State tried to get off a desperation final shot. But, Forte made a steal and his driving length-of-the-court dunk with only 2.8 seconds left gave Carolina a 34-27 halftime edge.
Curry matched his career scoring high in that first half alone with 11 points and Kris Lang added nine to spark the Tar Heel attack. Forte had eight at intermission and Brendan Haywood, shackled with two early fouls, had only one free throw.
However, Forte made seven of 10 second-half shots and finished with a game-high 27. Julius Peppers had all 10 of his points in the final 20 minutes and Haywood added seven to finish with eight.
Curry had just one field goal in the second half. But, it was a spectacular spinning three-pointer which he got off just prior to the 35-second clock expiring.
Regardless of what the Tar Heels did, the Wolfpack wouldn't go away. Carolina built a 10-point lead, 50-40, with 13:17 to go when Curry fed Haywood for a hook shot. Forte was fouled when he scored on an offensive rebound and added the free throw to widen that to 13. A Haywood free throw made it 14 before Kenny Inge scored inside to slice it back to 12.
Forte tossed in a running one-hander off the baseline and Jason Capel scored on a steal and layup to push it back to 16. State still refused to quit as Damien Wilkins drilled a three-pointer.
The lead went from 11 to 15 the rest of the way.
Doherty becomes the first coach in ACC history to at least tie for first place in his year in the conference.
"What that means is Bill Guthridge left me with some very good players," he said Wednesday night. "I'm proud of these guys and what they've accomplished. They've worked hard and done what we've asked them to do.
"But, we've got another big game coming up Sunday. I don't have to tell anyone the challenge we face in playing Duke."
But, for a few moments he wanted to enjoy the win over the Wolfpack. It may have been ugly to some people, but Doherty will take ugly games like that everyday as long as the outcome is the same.
