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4 Tar Heels Tame Tigers, 88-56
by Keith Parsons
AP Sports Writer
Three years ago, then-freshman Jawad Williams
watched several important streaks end for North
Carolina.
He and his teammates finished 8-20 to snap
a run of 32 straight 20-win seasons, and they
failed to reach the NCAA tournament for the
first time in 29 years. With that kind of history,
Williams had little interest in the Tar Heels'
mastery of Clemson.
"I couldn't care less, because I was here
when we broke all those streaks," the senior
said with a smile.
Williams scored 17 points on his 22nd birthday,
sixth-man Marvin Williams added 14 and No.
4 North Carolina routed Clemson 88-56 on Saturday,
leaving the Tigers 0-51 on the road in this
series.
Clemson's futility in Chapel Hill is the
longest active losing streak in the country;
Penn once won 52 straight home games over
Brown for the all-time record.
"I have no way of explaining it,
you can call it a quirk if you want to," North Carolina
coach Roy Williams said. "I didn't talk
about it with the team, except we think it's
silly."
Silly or not, no one wanted to be a part
of the first home loss to the Tigers.
"I feel sorry for the first team that
does lose here," said Sean May, who had his
fourth straight double-double with 12 points
and 13 rebounds. "Like Coach said, we
didn't have anything to do with the first
(48). We can't get caught up in that. When
somebody does lose, they will survive and
life will go on."
Raymond Felton had 11 points and nine assists
for the Tar Heels (22-3, 10-2), who moved
into a first-place tie with Wake Forest in
the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Sharrod Ford led Clemson (12-13, 2-10) with
13 points, but this one really never was
in doubt, even though Tigers coach Oliver
Purnell tried his best early on to motivate
his players.
Barely 90 seconds into the game, he was up
protesting a foul called on Sam Perry, and
Purnell continued yelling at referee Gary
Maxwell while the Tar Heels prepared to inbound
the ball. Finally, referee Mike Wood heard
enough and gave Purnell a technical, and
two free throws by Jawad Williams made it
4-1.
"I sort of wanted to send a message
that we didn't want to be called for touch
fouls
when they were being very aggressive on the
other end," Purnell said. "I certainly
wanted that message to be heard, and if they
wanted to 'T' me up, they had to 'T' me up."
It quickly got worse after Purnell's technical.
North Carolina jumped to a 14-1 lead as the
Tigers missed their first eight shots. They
eventually got to 20-12 on a layup by Vernon
Hamilton, but that was the last time the
margin was less than 10.
"We wanted to come out and set the
tone early," May
said.
Marvin Williams started a 14-0 run by scoring
off a nice assist from Felton, and all but
one of the Tar Heels' baskets during the
spurt came off an assist. Felton fed Jawad
Williams for a dunk that turned into a three-point
play, and Williams added another on the next
possession after Rashad McCants had a steal.
David Noel led Scott for another layup, and
May finished off the 20-minute domination
with a three-point play, banking in a jumper
as he was fouled by Shawan Robinson to make
it 34-12. A brief rally brought Clemson within
16, but Marvin Williams scored four consecutive
points - off assists from Felton and McCants
- and North Carolina cruised from there despite
some shoddy ball handling.
The Tar Heels had 19 turnovers, four by Felton.
"We had a significant lead when
we were up 20 at the half, but we hadn't
taken very
good advantage of the opportunities we had
on the break," Roy Williams said. "I
was unhappy with what we did on the break,
fumbling the ball out of bounds, throwing
it way. Overall, I was really pleased with
the defensive end of the court."
After a layup by Ford cut the lead to 45-27
early in the second half, the Tar Heels outscored
the Tigers 19-3 over the next few minutes
to make the final 10 minutes nothing more
than garbage time. Marvin Williams played
a prominent role during this stretch, throwing
a touch pass to Jawad Williams for a dunk
and later adding a steal and a layup.
North Carolina eventually went ahead 80-41
and turned the final minutes over to the
bench. Walk-on Charlie Everett gave what
was left of the home crowd a thrill with
a layup, giving him 11 points this season.
Jesse Holley, normally a wide receiver on
the football team, also got in the act, emphatically
blocking a jumper by Jimmy Hudson in the
final minute.
And the Tigers went home with another loss.
"It was motivation, we could have
been part of history here," Clemson
senior Olu Babalola said. "But we didn't
have anything to do with most of those. There's
nothing
we can do about that."
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