College Hoops: Calling My Shot Right Now

[Danny White]

I guess that run is over.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Tyrese Rice and Boston College put an end to all that talk of whether No. 1 North Carolina could go unbeaten.

Rice scored 25 points in his second straight big game against the Tar Heels to help the Eagles stun North Carolina 85-78 on Sunday, likely ending its run atop the early season polls.

Fast Facts

• North Carolina's last home loss as No. 1 was last year vs. Maryland. That was also its first loss of the season.

• The last time Boston College beat the No. 1 team in the nation was a 75-72 win over North Carolina on March 20, 1994 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

• Tyler Hansbrough, an 87.2 percent free-throw shooter entering the game, hit just 3 of 6 from the line in the game's final two minutes.

• Ty Lawson scored 10 points, making him the 62nd Tar Heels player to score more than 1,000 points in his UNC career. Three others -- Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Hansbrough -- also currently play for the Heels.

-- ESPN research

Rakim Sanders added 22 points for the Eagles (13-2, 1-0), who led by six points at halftime and pushed the lead to as many as 15 before holding off a frantic rally from the Tar Heels (13-1, 0-1) in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.

"We had to have the discipline in order to execute what it is we needed to do," Boston College coach Al Skinner said. "There were going to be breakdowns and there were, but guys were able to refocus and not compound those mistakes."

Tyler Hansbrough scored 21 points to lead North Carolina, which shot 29 percent from the field in the second half and was just 15-for-27 at the foul line for the game.

North Carolina had won its first 13 games by an average of 26 points, with the closest margin being 15 points. But on this day, the Tar Heels looked out of sync against the Eagles' physical defense and had no answers for Rice, who burned them for 46 points last season.

In that game, North Carolina rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit for a 90-80 victory as Rice was the only BC player to reach double figures.

Rice again caused North Carolina plenty of trouble, though this time he had early help from Sanders along with a key contribution from Reggie Jackson (17 points) in the decisive run. There would be no blown lead this time, just the sight of the BC bench spilling onto the court in celebration as the horn sounded.

"Needless to say, it hurts," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "We just never could get over the hump, didn't get them to turn it over very much. Then we had some guys -- including myself -- who didn't have as good of a day that we hoped we'd have."

Sanders scored 18 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer right in front of the North Carolina bench just before the horn that gave the Eagles a 46-40 lead. Then, after North Carolina closed the gap to two points four times, they answered with a spurt that had the Tar Heels chasing them the rest of the game.

First came a 3 from Joe Trapani. Then Jackson had a spinning score followed by a 3 of his own before capping a 12-2 run with a layup past Ellington that made it 70-58 with 10:09 to play.

Two possessions later, Trapani made an uncontested layup after a turnover by Will Graves that made it 74-60 with 9:22 left -- capping a run of five straight scoring possessions.

The Tar Heels, meanwhile, just looked lost. Hansbrough struggled to consistently find space against Josh Southern and frequent double-teams. Frontcourtmate Deon Thompson, who came in averaging 14 points per game, was a no-show and sat on the bench while Graves earned his minutes late. And no one seemed able to make a big shot when the Tar Heels desperately needed one, most notably when they missed three open 3s on one possession in the final 3 minutes.

North Carolina hung in the game with a frantic defensive effort in the final minutes and whittled the lead to 82-78 on a free throw from Hansbrough with 46.2 seconds left, but got no closer. Rice went 3-for-4 at the line in the final 30 seconds to seal the win.

Rice finished 7-for-13 from the field and had eight assists with five rebounds to outperform counterpart Ty Lawson, who had 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting.

Ellington had 16 points, while Thompson had five points on 2-for-6 shooting for the Tar Heels.

 

[big dog cowboy]

The North Carolina Tarheels are going to be an undefeated National Champion in college basketball. I can't believe that team returns its top 6 players from last year. If they lose I will be shocked.

Are you shocked?

 

[Route 66]

Well Hos? Are ya shocked?

 

[Hostile]

Are you shocked?

Well Hos? Are ya shocked?

In truth, yes I am. They have won every other game by 15 points or more I think. No one was even giving them much of a game.

This reminds me of when Duke beat UNLV in the Finals and ended their undefeated season. I just wanted to say no way. Same here. No way did that just happen.

Wake up call? We'll see.

You gotta give me credit for making a call like that before even one game was played. Even if I was wrong, I took a leap.

 

[dbair1967]

In truth, yes I am. They have won every other game by 15 points or more I think. No one was even giving them much of a game.

This reminds me of when Duke beat UNLV in the FInals and ended their undefeated season. I just wanted to say no way. Same here. No way did that just happen.

Wake up call? We'll see.

You gotta give me credit for making a call like that before even one game was played. Even if I was wrong, I took a leap.

they lost because they couldnt throw it in the ocean last night...thats not going to happen much with the players they have.

last yr they played great all yr and then played the absolute worst possible game they could have played vs Kansas (for a half anyway)...maybe this yr they are getting their bad game out early.

 

[Hostile]

they lost because they couldnt throw it in the ocean last night...thats not going to happen much with the players they have.

last yr they played great all yr and then played the absolute worst possible game they could have played vs Kansas (for a half anyway)...maybe this yr they are getting their bad game out early.

I think that's exactly what happened.

I got a lot of respect for how hard Hansbrough works. He makes me want to watch them play.

 

[Hostile]

I was checking on Hansbrough to see how close he is getitng to the two ACC records I mentioned earlier this year.

JJ Redick holds the ACC scoring mark at 2769 points.

Hansbrough has 2543 points. 226 behind Redick.

There are 9 regular season games left meaning he would need 25.1 points per game without the ACC tourney or the NCAA tourney. If they ran the table in both of those it would add 9 games to the UNC schedule.

In other words, he will get that record barring an injury.


Ralph Sampson hold the ACC rebound record with 1125 boards.

Hansbrough now has 1072 rebounds. 53 behind Sampson.

He only needs 5.9 boards per game in the regular season to break that mark too.

He'll get that record too.

Impressive kid. If he were an AZ Wildcat he might be my favorite player in the nation to watch.

 

[Route 66]

Oklahoma climbing to the #2 spot. :cheers:

 

[Danny White]

Oklahoma climbing to the #2 spot. :cheers:

Nice win for the Sooners tonight. Tough loss for the Horns.

Duke got dominated as well.