Colleges

ACC: Heels' freshmen down Duke

By wire services
Published March 5, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. - North Carolina's freshmen earned another victory on the road, this time in, perhaps, the toughest setting: Senior Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Tyler Hansbrough scored 27 and Danny Green came up with the key defensive stop as the No.13 Tar Heels held off No.1 Duke 83-76 on Saturday in the final home game for J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.

Bobby Frasor, another freshman, made two free throws with 23 seconds left, and Hansbrough later made two more. That made it a five-point game, and the Blue Devils were done when DeMarcus Nelson then missed everything on a 3-pointer.

Marcus Ginyard, the fourth freshman in the rotation for the Tar Heels, scored 12 and Frasor 10. Green stripped Duke's Sean Dockery on a drive in the final minute, when the margin was only three.

Duke had won 16 of the past 19 in the series but couldn't solve a defense that had held nine of its past 10 opponents below 50 percent from the field.

Redick scored 18 despite missing 15 of his final 16 shots, and Williams had 18 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks. Even though they had wrapped up the top seed in the conference tournament, the Blue Devils completed the regular season with a loss to Florida State and their first loss to North Carolina at Cameron since 2001.

It was 59-59 midway through the second half - the eighth tie - when the Tar Heels took control.

An 11-0 run did it, with little-used senior Byron Sanders leading the way. He used two nifty assists from reserve point guard Quentin Thomas for his only two baskets of the game, and when Thomas fed David Noel for a jumper, North Carolina led by 10.

It was 70-59 when Reshawn Terry added a free throw, and the Tar Heels still led by 11 with 2:45 left. But the game was far from over.

Nelson swished two 3-pointers in 40 seconds, and Lee Melchionni put back a miss of Redick. Suddenly, it was 77-74 with 1:39 left, and when Nelson got a steal on the ensuing possession, Duke had a chance to tie it.

But Green thwarted Dockery's drive through the lane, which led to the free throws by Frasor and Hansbrough, and North Carolina held on to win for the seventh time in eight ACC road games this season.

The four freshmen outscored Duke's four senior starters 55-51.

WAKE 76, NO.22 N.C. STATE 63: Eric Williams had 22 points and 16 rebounds for the host Demon Deacons. The Wolfpack, playing without leading scorer Cameron Bennerman because of a pulled hamstring, shot 26 percent and 4-for-29 on 3-pointers. Wake never trailed. It scored the first seven, led 42-30 at halftime and by as many as 17 in the second half.

The Wolfpack got no closer than seven, and that came during the final minute. The team's frustrations bubbled over late when Tony Bethel was whistled for a technical foul for elbowing Justin Gray to the ground on a dead ball. Bethel fouled out, and Michael Drum and Gray made three free throws to make it 74-63 with 47.7 seconds left.

Down 52-43 with 5:49 left, the Hokies cut it to 59-57 on Jamon Gordon's steal and dunk with 27 seconds left. Tyrese Rice made two free throws for the Eagles. But Wynton Witherspoon made it a two-point game again, and Virginia Tech fouled Sean Marshall with 2.3 seconds left. He barely hit the rim on his first free throw and air-balled the second, giving the Hokies their final chance.

[Last modified March 5, 2006, 00:54:10]