University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Tennessee
Tar Heels Advance To Maui Classic Championship
November 24, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2004
LAHAINA, Hawaii - North Carolina took care of Tennessee early to earn yet another appearance in a Maui Invitational championship game.
Rashad McCants scored 27 points and North Carolina shot 65 percent in the first half on the way to a 94-81 victory Tuesday night.
The 11th-ranked Tar Heels (2-1) will play Iowa in the championship game Wednesday. Iowa beat No. 15 Texas 82-80 on Tuesday.
"The two games I've seen Iowa play they've been sensational," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "They have very competitive kids and we have to be just as competitive."
This is North Carolina's fourth appearance in the Maui Invitational, which is sponsored by EA Sports, and the Tar Heels have always reached the title game. They won it in 1999 and finished second in 1989 and 1995.
They ensured their trip to the final game this time by shooting 65.4 percent from the field (17-for-26) in taking a 51-31 halftime lead.
Just as in the 86-50 opening-round win over Brigham Young, North Carolina played impressive defense early, holding the Volunteers (1-1) to 36.7 percent shooting (11-for-30) in the opening half.
"In the first half we did a great job on defense and that's what got us going," said Sean May, who had nine points and 13 rebounds. "Sometimes defense can take over the game. We let down a little bit in the second half and we have to get over that and finish a game for 40 minutes."
Raymond Felton, who missed the Tar Heels' season-opening loss to Santa Clara because of a one-game suspension for playing in an unsanctioned summer league, had nine points and nine assists. As they did against BYU, the Tar Heels looked very comfortable with Felton back at point guard.
"I just rode my teammates' energy," McCants said. "They gave me the ball in the right position to score and everything else took care of itself."
North Carolina shot 58.8 percent for the game (30-for-51).
Chris Lofton was 6-for-10 from 3-point range and had 22 points for Tennessee, which closed to 82-69 with 4:53 to play on two free throws by C.J. Watson.
McCants then hit his third 3-pointer of the game and Marvin Williams scored down low to get the lead back to 18 points.
"In the second half we were a little more lackadaisical than I would have liked but they were aggressive in the second half," Roy Williams said. "But I'll tell you, we were pretty doggone good in the first half."
Jawad Williams had 21 points for North Carolina.
"Their pressure got to us a little bit and we took some quick shots, and pressure will do that," Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson said. "CAROLINA defends and they have weapons and depth and when McCants gets it going there aren't many players that talented in the country.
"We could have hung our heads down 20 in the first half, but they kept on fighting. We have to get the ball inside for higher-percentage shots and we ran our offense more that way in the second half."
The loss dropped Peterson to 0-3 against his alma mater. The Volunteers beat Stanford 69-57 in the opening round.
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
