University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Miami
Tar Heels Outlast Hurricanes, 80-70
February 12, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) - The first half belonged to Tyler Hansbrough. His teammates did the rest during a second-half surge.
Hansbrough scored 25 points and Bobby Frasor made two key jump shots late in the game to lead No. 23 North Carolina to an 80-70 win over Miami on Sunday night.
Hansbrough went 11-for-17 from the floor, with many of those coming with Miami's big men in his face. He scored 16 points in the first half on 7-of-9 shooting, but his teammates made the difference in the second half.
Hansbrough was on the bench for much of the biggest run for the Tar Heels (15-6, 6-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). With the game tied at 56 with 10:22 left, Frasor made a 3-pointer to ignite a 13-2 run that also included 3s from Wes Miller and David Noel.
Frasor sank consecutive jump shots to give North Carolina a 78-67 lead with less than 2 minutes remaining, helping hold off a late rally by Miami (14-10, 6-5).
"The only thing that's happened good for us is when we keep attacking," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. "When it was 56-56, we put the ball in the middle of the court two or three times in a row and got it to the basket."
The Tar Heels are now fourth in the conference, vaulting ahead of Miami, which won 81-70 at North Carolina last month.
"Any win in the ACC on the road or at home is big for our conference record," Frasor said. "I think we came in with a little bit of a chip on our shoulders since they came in and took one at our place, and we wanted to take one from them."
Miami had entered the game leading the ACC in scoring defense at 62.5 points per game.
Reyshawn Terry battled foul trouble to score 18 points for North Carolina, which shot 55.4 percent from the field. Frasor added 13.
Guillermo Diaz had 21 points, Robert Hite scored 15 and Anthony Harris 12 for the Hurricanes. Hite electrified the sold-out crowd with an alley-oop dunk on a perfect pass by Diaz, while Diaz dazzled with step-back jumpers and aggressive drives through the lane.
But Miami struggled with North Carolina's diligent man-to-man defense in the second half.
"They turned up the pressure a little bit but we made some bad plays," Hite said. "We didn't do the things we usually do to run our game plan."
Both teams were looking to recover from difficult losses. The Tar Heels fell short in an 87-83 home loss to No. 2 Duke on Tuesday, while the Hurricanes lost 86-77 in double overtime to North Carolina State.
Hansbrough endured physical defense by Miami's big men to get most of his points in the paint despite frequent double teaming. He grabbed several tough rebounds and blocked a Harris layup. At one point, an official spoke privately with Miami's Anthony King and Hansbrough after a physical scramble for the ball.
"There was a couple of times the refs thought that we were going at it, but it's just a physical game as far as that," Hansbrough said.
Miami took its first lead of the game at 40-39 when Anthony King made two free throws with 19:22 to play. But a pair of foul shots by Terry at the other end gave North Carolina the lead.
The Hurricanes came right back, with Diaz hitting a 3-pointer to make it 43-41 Miami.
The Tar Heels kept up the pressure and eventually went in front for good. Hansbrough added another basket in the paint to give North Carolina a 51-47 lead with 16:11 left.
North Carolina led 39-38 at halftime.
