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College Basketball

Tar Heels use late run to put 'Noles away

NORTH CAROLINA 69, FSU 48: UNC scores 39, including 21 by its bench, in the second half.

By JASON SCHNEIDER
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 23, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- When Leonard Hamilton was brought in to rebuild Florida State's basketball program, the sentiment around the league was that a sleeping giant was awaking.

No.23 North Carolina proved that giant still is not fully alert, beating the Seminoles 69-48 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams on Sunday night.

"We've got to be a 40-minute team to be successful," Hamilton said. "For whatever reason, it didn't appear that we came out in the second half prepared to do that. That comes from a lack of focus and a lack of tenacity that has gotten us to where we were before this game."

Tied at 30 at halftime, the Tar Heels' Jawad Williams scored 10 of his 16 in the second half.

North Carolina opened the second with a 7-0 run, outscoring the Seminoles 39-18.

Florida State (6-2) didn't score until about three minutes into the second, when Nate Johnson hit a jumper.

The Tar Heels (7-2) responded with a 15-4 run. Florida State committed 22 turnovers and was outscored 21-6 as a result of its mistakes.

"I'm really proud of the adjustments our kids made at the halftime," Tar Heels coach Matt Doherty said. "We talked a lot about poise, toughness and togetherness. There was one point when FSU had two breakaway dunks and the crowd got back into it. I was thinking of calling a timeout but I said, 'No, let's just see what we can do,' and we executed all the way."

Rashad McCants added 12 points for North Carolina, which was playing its first ACC game on the road as the school tries to rebound from an 8-20 season that included a 4-12 conference record.

Both teams were 1-for-9 from the 3-point line in the first, but the Tar Heels made 4 of 12 3-pointers in the second (33.3 percent).

"It took us a while to get ourselves calm and under control," said freshman Sean May, who scored seven and led North Carolina with 10 rebounds.

The Seminoles went 0-for-7 in the second. Their 1-for-16 shooting was the lowest 3-point total this season.

"We were just really cold," Tim Pickett said. "We're a good shooting team. We just couldn't hit anything tonight."

North Carolina's bench scored 21 in the second, a season high, and Florida State's bench was held scoreless.

Florida State shot 46.4 percent from the floor to start the game. The defense, ranked second nationally in field-goal percentage, held the Tar Heels to 27.5 percent, but couldn't sustain its effort.

"When you have two teams playing defense, they usually neutralize, but when you have one team with 17 uncontested shots as they had, you end up with 20-point losses," Hamilton said.

Pickett led Florida State with 15 points, including 1-for-10 from behind the arc. Anthony Richardson added 12.

"This will test who we are," Hamilton said. "I'd like to think that whatever demons damaged the fabric of our team will be eliminated by a few days off and some of mamas' cooking because it's not getting any easier."

-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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