University of North Carolina Athletics
Inside Power Carries Tar Heels To Championship Game
April 2, 2005 | Men's Basketball
April 2, 2005
By KEITH PARSONS
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS - North Carolina needed some time to establish control of the paint. Once the Tar Heels got it, Michigan State had no chance.
Sean May had 18 of his 22 points in the second half and Jawad Williams broke out of a long scoring slump to finish with 20, helping North Carolina to a sizable inside advantage in an 87-71 victory over the Spartans on Saturday night.
The Tar Heels, in the championship game for the first time since winning the title in 1993, will play Illinois on Monday night. The Illini beat Louisville 72-57.
"I think the determination of Jawad and the other guys to play much better and compete harder in the second half," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.
Getting that kind of effort from May was nothing new. During the run to the Final Four, he averaged 21.5 points and 11.8 rebounds, and he had double-doubles in 14 of the previous 18 games. But in the first half, with two and sometimes three defenders surrounding him, he had only two points and three rebounds.
May quickly established himself after the break, following up a miss by Williams with less than a minute gone. May scored in a variety of ways - banking in jumpers, making free throws, leaping high for lob passes and dunks - and Williams surprisingly added something to help North Carolina (32-4) outscore Michigan State 46-28 in the paint.
A few weeks ago in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Williams strained a muscle in his hip, and the injury robbed him of the strength needed in his legs to get the necessary lift on his shot. That was painfully obvious once he got in the NCAA tournament, particularly in a second-round victory over Iowa State.
The 6-foot-9 senior missed all six shots in that one - including two 3-pointers - and was 1-of-5 from the free throw line. His grand total of one point was his lowest since going scoreless against Indiana in the third game of his freshman season.
He improved somewhat in the next two games, then broke out in a big way against Michigan State (26-7). With May and Marvin Williams struggling, Jawad Williams helped the Tar Heels stay close with 12 points in the first half.
Early in the second half, in perhaps the defining moments that proved he is over that hip ailment, he leaped high for an alley-oop dunk off an assist from point guard Raymond Felton. Later, after the Spartans came back to tie it, Jawad Williams spun for a fallaway jumper from about 10 feet over Matt Trannon to put the Tar Heels ahead for good.
The shot gave him 18 points in the game, and he added one more basket to reach 20 points for the first time since Feb. 27 at Maryland. Since then, he has only reached double figures once, and after leading the team in scoring for much of the season, his average dropped to third behind May and Rashad McCants.
Jawad Williams likely doesn't care. As one of three players left from the horrible 8-20 season three years ago, he and his teammates have the program back on track.
"It felt great, I'm not worried about my individual performance, I just wanted my team to get a `W' tonight," he said.
