North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Takes 6th Straight Win over Heels, 83-80
1/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 1974
BY TIM PEELER
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. This is becoming a habit for NC State. A very good habit, in the eyes of the Wolfpack players, coaches and fans around the state.
For the sixth time in three years and the second time this season, Norman Sloan’s squad beat arch-rival North Carolina, recording a 83-80 victory at Carmichael Auditorium that strengthened the self-confidence of the nation’s third-ranked team and weakened the rivalry these two teams have shared for more than six decades.
“This loss is not the end of the season for us, but if State plays like they did tonight for the rest of the year, they may go undefeated (in the conference) again,” said North Carolina coach Dean Smith. “We tried everything possible, but State was just the better team.”
The Wolfpack never trailed in the game’s final 30 minutes and built as much as an 11-point lead late in the first half. But the Tar Heels got within two points with 50 seconds remaining in the game, a momentum shift that put the outcome in jeopardy.
But Sloan instructed junior point guard Monte Towe to kill the clock with his dribbling expertise and the little guy darted around Carmichael’s court like a pinball for 39 seconds without getting tackled, as the Tar Heels tried to stop the clock with a foul.
“We wanted to commit a foul with 25 seconds left if we couldn’t make a steal,” Smith said. “But we never could catch Towe.”
The Heels eventually caught David Thompson as he went up for a shot with 11 seconds left on the clock. He made one of two free throws to give his team a three-point lead.
The full-court inbounds pass by Ray Harrison was intercepted by Burleson on the other end of the court and the Wolfpack (11-1 overall, 4-0 ACC) withstood four fouls over the final seven seconds to hand the Tar Heels their first conference loss of the season.
“It was a game that could have gone either way,” Sloan said. “I feel we’re getting better all the time and tonight’s play bears me out, because we beat a great basketball team on their home floor.”
The Wolfpack beat the Tar Heels 78-77 in the first round of the Big Four Tournament in Greensboro earlier this month in a game that didn’t count in the ACC standings. This win meant more than that one, Sloan said, but only a little bit.
“As I said in Greensboro, the games that count are the ones in March,” Sloan said. “These wins are great, wining the Big Four Tournament was great... but it’s still the games in March that are most important.”
The Wolfpack surged ahead during a seven-minute spurt in the first half, in which it outscored the Tar Heels 18-5, thanks to a couple of jumpers by Thompson and Moe Rivers and some fancy moves by Towe. State’s defense held UNC to just one field goal in that span, building a 38-27 advantage.
The Heels spent the rest of the game trying to catch up and narrowed the margin to 42-36 at the half.
“State got ahead, kept their composure and that was the game,” said UNC forward Bobby Jones.
Thompson blitzed UNC after intermission, scoring 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second period. He mixed in a few high-flying tip-ins with his elevated, mid-range jumper for which UNC had no defense.
“He’s one of the greatest players I have ever seen,” said Jones, who tried to stop the Thompson tidal wave. “When he goes up for that jumpshot, all you can do is put a hand in his face and hope he misses.”
Jones, who had 18 points for the Heels, wondered aloud why his team even bothered to guard Thompson at all.
“He’s going to get his 30 anyway so why wear out a man and have him pick up fouls trying to guard him?” Jones said. “The idea is to try to keep the other players from getting their points.”
But the Tar Heels couldn’t do that either, as Towe poured in 21 points, senior center Tommy Burleson had 14 and Rivers had 10.
“You won’t find one college team in a hundred that has even one player the caliber of those guys,” said Tar Heel guard Darrell Elston, who scored a team-high 23 points and seven assists. “And State has three.”
And they will be even tougher to guard as they continue to gain confidence.
“We have self-confidence,” Towe said. “Not a cocky kind of attitude. I mean we feel we’re going to win but I’d never tell you that we are never going to lose again. That would be stupid.”
But there is no doubt that the Pack has the upper hand right now in this rivalry, after UNC won 13 out of 14 games from 1966-72.
“Since we’ve beaten them six straight times, I think it is more of a challenge for them to beat us than for us to beat them,” said Burleson, who had a game-high 11 rebounds. “The rivalry is sort of fading out. This game is getting to be like a regular conference game for us.”
Sloan isn’t worried about that. He just wants to see his team continue to play as well as it has since the Sugar Bowl Tournament in late December.
“Right now, all I want us to do is play to the best of our ability and to win,” said the coach. “What I want is more rebounds and more points on the scoreboard.
“We don’t have a lot of technical strategy. David jumps up and gets it and Monte brings it down the court and shoots it. That’s not going to win me any coach of the year awards by admitting it, but that’s the way it is.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
