NC State
North Carolina
Wolfpack Falls at UNC, 84-64
1/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2011
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – From the first beep of the alarm clock Saturday morning, little went right for NC State in its annual visit to North Carolina.
First, freshman point guard Ryan Harrow, who had taken over a starting position in recent weeks, was unable to participate in the game because of an illness. He spent the game on the bench in street clothes, watching as North Carolina jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the game’s first three minutes.
For the rest of the game, the two teams booted, slapped and jostled the ball up and down the court, with the less-than-crisp Tar Heels piling on points and the Wolfpack missing shots and making turnovers.
By halftime, the score was 34-21, as the Wolfpack made just seven of 30 shots and committed 10 turnovers. The Tar Heels didn’t shoot much better, making 14 of 37 shots, but they owned the boards, outrebounding the Pack 34-18.
“We dug a hole for ourselves in the first half by not rebounding the ball and giving them second opportunities,” head coach Sidney Lowe said. “We just didn’t score the ball. I think four of our five starters were 5 of 25 shooting in the game. “The last couple of games, we haven’t been able to score the ball. You rely on your defense a great deal, but you have to score the basketball.”
For the game, the Wolfpack managed to make 36.4 percent of its shots. UNC’s John Henson was particularly tough on defense for his team, blocking seven shots against the Wolfpack and grabbing 16 rebounds to go along with his 16 points.
Freshman Harrison Barnes scored a career-high 25 points, making 10 of his 16 shots as the Tar Heels scored its season high against an ACC opponent.
The Tar Heels (15-5 overall, 5-1 ACC) stretched their lead to 40-21 by scoring six straight in the first two minutes of the second half. They improved their shooting to 57.6 percent and committed just five turnovers after intermission.
The Wolfpack finally got a boost when freshman Lorenzo Brown took over the offense, running point guard and scoring seven straight points during a mini-burst of offense.
He assisted on a pair of reverse layups by C.J. Williams, as the Wolfpack twice narrowed the deficit to 11 points. The Pack had one other chance to get back to that margin, but Brown missed his free throw on a three-point play attempt with 12:28 remaining on the clock.
Justin Knox and Tyler Zeller scored for the Tar Heels to make the lead comfortable against and with 6:41 left in the game, Barnes hit a 3-pointer to give his team a 66-45 advantage, its biggest lead of the game to that point.
Senior Javi Gonzalez came back into the game and was fouled by Henson after grabbing a rebound, with the chance to cut the lead to 15 points. But he was called for a technical foul for making contact and knocking Henson out of bounds.
The Tar Heels scored five points on the possession, with two free throws by Henson and a three-point play by Zeller to push the lead back to 20. That lead was eventually pushed to 79-54.
Brown’s 20 points were a career high, topping the 17 points he had in December against USC Upstate. His seven assists were also a career high, after dishing out six on four previous occasions.
Senior Tracy Smith had 12 points and three rebounds when he fouled out of the game with 4:35 minutes to play. Freshman C.J. Leslie added 13 points for the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack (12-9, 2-5) is back in action Wednesday night when it hosts Virginia Tech in a 7 p.m. contest at the RBC Center. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
