Big games routine part of Triangle winter
Jan 22, 2009
Three games in three nights, three highly-rated Triangle teams hosting games. This routine part of winter is played out against the backdrop of a substantial snowfall, the governor declaring a state of emergency as schools and offices close.
As in sunny Washington, D.C., where a new president is inaugurated, on local basketball court old verities are challenged and reaffirmed, long streaks of success arrested and extended. Here a rare opportunity is offered, there a rivalry renewed, an improbability confronted.
Monday night: Connecticut 88-North Carolina 58
This is a big moment on a national stage for the second-ranked North Carolina women, who have won 31 straight games at Chapel Hill, 76 in a row against nonconference opponents since January 2001. A victory over visiting Connecticut, top-ranked and similarly undefeated, would surely catapult UNC to the top spot in the AP poll, a position the highly successful program achieved previously only for five weeks in 2006.
The game attracts ESPN2 and 12,722 spectators, the largest crowd ever to witness a Carolina women’s home game. There is enough of a turnout to spill into the upper deck of the cavernous Smith Center, the program’s temporary digs while Carmichael Auditorium undergoes renovation.
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell, dressed in an uncharacteristically conservative dark pantsuit, twice pops into the press room in the moments before tipoff to follow the televised progress of the Duke-N.C. State women’s game at Raleigh. Then UNC and UConn take the court and the game is essentially decided by the first TV timeout, a competitive shock that leaves the Heels hanging their heads before the half ends.
“They were just a notch higher than we were as far as how intense and hard they played,” Hatchell concedes as her team falls to 17-1. “They played harder than we did, and that’s something we’ve got to learn to do a lot better.”
Perhaps the relative softness of the early schedule has not adequately prepared Hatchell’s squad, which seems off balance. Unable to use its pressure defense to fuel fast breaks against a poised opponent, North Carolina resorts too often to one-on-one moves and shots taken without adequate board coverage. The Huskies dissect the Heels in half court, win the rebound battle by 21, hold a 22-4 edge in points off turnovers, and get open shots almost at will.
UConn wins by a shocking 30-point margin despite losing its top freshman, Caroline Doty, to a season-ending knee injury in its previous outing. “They had more heart than we did,” says somber UNC senior Heathor Claytor.
Hatchell and her players are gracious in defeat, but the coach cannot help noting one objectionable aspect of Connecticut’s play. “This game was much, much more physical than any game we’ve played this year and I think it bothered us, it got to us,” she says, vowing to pursue a video critique.
Coming from a coach whose teams are notable for their physical play, this is a bit like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski protesting that an opponent resorts too frequently to hand-checking, or UNC’s Roy Williams declaiming on the unfairness of a fast tempo.
Tuesday night: Duke 73-N.C. State 56
Three days after Duke stuffs Cameron Indoor Stadium beyond capacity for a non-league game against Georgetown, there are noticeable open areas in the student section and empty seats upstairs for the only matchup this year with traditional rival N.C. State.
Some absences doubtless arise from the weather and official warnings not to drive unless necessary. But there is also a sense the nation’s No.2 squad will easily handle the Wolfpack, competitive but rarely impressive this season. History supports this view; the Blue Devils have won 11 straight at home against N.C. State, a streak stretching to 1995 when Krzyzewski was sidelined due to exhaustion related to back surgery.
Action on the court confounds expectations. Duke’s defense attacks, but so does the physical, aggressive Pack. The Devils force three turnovers in the first minute and a half but fail to score, missing six shots and a free throw before finally getting on the scoreboard. C.J. Williams, a 6-5 freshman, punctuates the uncommon insistence of N.C. State’s defensive effort by stuffing a dunk attempt by Brian Zoubek, Duke’s slow-reacting, 7-1 center.
While the Dukies experience one of their worst shooting halves of the season (29 percent accuracy on 31 attempts), the black-socked Wolfpack fashion a 26-22 halftime advantage. At times Krzyzewski and assistants sit watching the action in mute harmony, hands covering their mouths as if stifling words of dismay. Krzyzewski later says his team has to figuratively “vomit” to start the second half, purging itself of the “malaise of whatever we were in.”
For the second straight game foul-plagued Kyle Singler, Duke’s leading scorer, struggles to get untracked offensively. So does teammate Jon Scheyer. That leaves it to increasingly assertive Gerald Henderson to carry the Blue Devils.
“I’ve been able to keep progressing with my game, and I think that helps the team for sure,” says the smooth, explosive 6-4 junior. He pulls his team into a tie early in the second half, scoring 13 of his game-high 21 points during a five-minute span. “He’s a unique player,” says Pack coach Sidney Lowe. “He did exactly what a player of his caliber is supposed to do.”
But Duke has few answers for State’s Ben McCauley and Brandon Costner, “two of the best players in the league” according to Krzyzewski. “Those two guys are really good. They’re not good, they’re really good.” Each contributes 15 points and five rebounds, Costner punishing Duke from the perimeter, McCauley wheeling and dealing inside.
Eventually 6-6 forward David McClure successfully blankets the 6-9 McCauley, doing everything he can within the rules, and more. “Dave, he does whatever it takes,” Henderson says. “I can’t give you a game this year where Dave has played bad.” McClure, one of the league’s most reticent shooters, chips in four points, three assists, three rebounds, two steals and no turnovers in 22 minutes.
The game turns after the Pack pulls within 54-53 with just under eight minutes remaining. From there, Duke closes with a 19-3 burst, forcing a clutch of turnovers that fuel its fast break. The Devils hit 76.9 percent of their second-half shots while improving to 17-1.
“They force you to think the game,” Lowe says admiringly. “So you really have to know how to play. In doing that, you have to be tough mentally as well as physically.” For 32 minutes at Durham, the 10-6 Wolfpack is up to that task, hinting at better things to come.
Wednesday night: North Carolina 94-Clemson 70
Last February 10, it appeared the impossible was about to occur. No, not that a major American political party was poised to nominate a black man as its candidate for president. That came later. Rather, Clemson was on the verge of winning a game at Chapel Hill.
Ready to avenge an earlier overtime defeat at Littlejohn Coliseum, the Tigers led the Tar Heels 79-68 with just over three minutes left in a rematch at the Smith Center. But as quickly as you could say, Oh, no, not again!, UNC rallied to tie the score and went on to win in double overtime. That extended Clemson’s winless record at Chapel Hill to 53 games, the longest streak by one team against another in NCAA history.
Make that 54, following the only contest between the teams this season. The sole possible rematch would come in the ACC Tournament, where UNC and Clemson played for the 2008 title won by the Tar Heels. “We played pretty doggone well, basically the whole ballgame,” coach Roy Williams says after the fifth-ranked Heels cruise to their 17th victory against two defeats.
Thanks to expansion, Clemson’s visits to UNC are no longer annual. As one member of the Clemson entourage notes hopefully, “We don’t come back for 720 days.”
Actually, if by this he means a figurative two years, that would be 730 days. But who’s counting? Whenever the game is played, the result is virtually preordained, unchanged since the schools began competing in basketball in Chapel Hill in 1926 during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.
When the Tigers next visit the Smith Center, at least they won’t face Wayne Ellington, who will probably be off somewhere trying his hand at professional basketball. The 6-4 junior has averaged 25 points in five career games against Clemson, exactly his scoring output as the Heels notch more points than any other Tiger opponent this season.
Ellington hits a momentum-boosting three just before halftime, juicing a 22-4 run that extends well into the second period and essentially decides the outcome. “Wayne always kills Clemson,” says fellow guard Bobby Frasor.
Ellington, a high school teammate of Duke’s Gerald Henderson, had 23 points in his previous outing against Miami. Heralding a revival of his fortunes, the All-ACC player hit 7 of 11 from 3-point range in the victory over the Hurricanes. Against No.10 Clemson his scoring is augmented by six rebounds and a career-best seven assists, arguably the most complete performance of his career. This is the first time he has enjoyed consecutive 20-point games.
“Things feel great right now,” says Ellington, admitting he was “doing a little too much thinking instead of just playing” until recently. “I’m getting my confidence back. Just shooting it. I’m just out there playing, just having a good time.”
So are the Tar Heels, who look suspiciously like the team that awed the basketball world until losing to Boston College less than three weeks ago.
