Agony Times Two! |
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The 53rd and latest loss for Clemson at North Carolina will go down as one of the most painful in the history of the Tigers' streak of futility in Chapel Hill. It will also just plain go down in history. The Tar Heels rallied from a 15-point second half deficit to force overtime, then survived one extra period of basketball before pulling away from Clemson in the second OT for a 103-93 victory Sunday night. The game was played before a sellout crowd at the Dean Smith Center. Clemson is now 0-53 against UNC in Chapel Hill, which makes it the longest such streak in college basketball history. Brown lost 52 straight games at Princeton. Tyler Hansbrough finished with 39 points and 14 rebounds for the Tar Heels (22-2, 7-3 ACC), helping his team remain two games behind Duke in the race for the top spot in the conference. Meanwhile, another valiant effort by Clemson (17-6, 5-4) fell just short. Sunday's loss came after the first meeting between the teams also went to overtime, a game UNC won 90-88. The Tigers are now 2-2 in overtime games this season. Thirteen of Hansbrough's points came in the two overtimes, but it took a frantic comeback effort for the Tar Heels to give him the opportunity. Clemson led by nine, 79-70, with exactly 3:00 remaining in regulation. But back-to-back turnovers - one by Cliff Hammonds, the other by Demontez Stitt - paved the way for two quick Hansbrough buckets to pull the Heels within 79-74. Another Hammonds turnover led to Danny Green's 3-pointer, and with 1:51 to go Clemson lead was down to 79-77. Hammonds would answer on the Tigers next possession with a 3-pointer of his own, but Green hit from long distance again to make it 82-80. Clemson had a chance to push the lead back to at least three with :36 seconds remaining, but Stitt missed the front end of the one-and-one. That allowed Quentin Thomas, playing again in place of the injured Ty Lawson, to score on a driving layup with :24 second left that tied the game. Regulation ended there, Clemson missing on a chance to win on the final possession. In the first overtime, Terrence Oglesby hit a pair of 3-pointers - one an off-balance, double-pump leaner over Wayne Ellington - to help keep the Tigers in it. And tied 90-90 Clemson again had a chance to win on the final possession. But after UNC batted the ball out of bounds with :01 left, an attempted lob pass to James Mays under the basket failed and the game went into double overtime. North Carolina outscored Clemson 13-3 in the extra period to escape with the victory. Ellington added 28 points for the winners, while Green added 14. Hammonds was outstanding for Clemson, finishing with 31 points. Stitt, playing for the first time since his knee surgery two weeks ago, added 14, while K.C. Rivers also had 14. Trevor Booker and David Potter had 10 each. North Carolina out-rebounded Clemson 48-39. The Tar Heels were also 31-of-36 from the free throw line, while the Tigers were just 1-of-7. Clemson is back in action on Thursday, hosting Georgia Tech. COACHES QUOTES Head Coach Roy Williams Opening Statement: "Like I said earlier this week, I hate Sunday night games, but this feels pretty good right now. That was an unbelievable game. I don't know what happened to us early, they hit us right between the eyes and we backed off a little bit too much. We got so timid and tentative with everything. We had six dead lay-ups in the first half. We didn't do a good job of stopping their dribble penetration and just couldn't get anything going. I was hoping to get it to seven or eight at the half, we weren't able to do that and it was still eleven. We came out and played better early and got it to six, and then all of a sudden it's back to thirteen. I told our guys, if you just keep playing. We can't do anything about the stuff that's behind us, but we can do something about each and every possession doing exactly what your supposed to do. I know it sounds plan and simple and corny, but that is exactly what I was telling them to do. Danny made a couple of threes and all of sudden, the guys felt like they really did have a chance. The crowd got into it and it was a sensational crowd for us today. We need that kind of support. We are struggling a little bit with injuries. For sure, Bobby and Ty, Marcus sprained his ankle in the first half. They taped it and put a brace on it, he was just really laboring out there. It is tough enough to go from the first point guard to second point guard to the third point guard, but all of sudden we lose the third point guard it gets a little difficult out there. If I live to be one hundred and six, I won't be any more proud of a group of kids than I am that bunch right there. They were amazing and again Danny made those threes and all of sudden they started believing a little bit more. We started to get a few more things out of our defense and got some traps and turnovers. Then we got shots ourselves. Guys we had thirteen turnovers at half time and we finished with twenty. That means in the second half and the two five minute overtimes or the last thirty minutes of the game, we only had seven turnovers. We got a lot stronger with the basketball. Q just did a really good job for us. Tyler Hansbrough sprinting down the court knocking the ball lose and diving on the ball. I don't know how much longer I am going to coach him, but I'd like to coach that big sucker about thirteen more years. When he decides to leave and I don't want any questions about that cause I could frankly don't give a damn. When he leaves I am going to consider myself the luckiest guy in the world to have coached him." On being down eleven with just under four minutes to go: "I think that is when Danny made a couple of those threes. All of a sudden it is a five-point game and then you do really start believing. Then we were talking about one stop, we need one stop. It was discouraging when Wayne played great defense on Oglesby and he made that three. It was a double pump lean in three with Wayne in his face. You also have to be awfully proud of Quentin Thomas. The adversity the youngster has faced and then he steps to the free throw line and makes both free throws to tie the game up at ninety. I grabbed him yesterday at practice or today at shoot around; I told him I was really proud of him. He started getting a little healthier with his knee and he has had a stomach problem for about a week. Those are two big free throws that he stepped up and made as well. There are a lot of guys I am awfully proud of." On Tyler Hansbrough's performance: "Tyler Hansbrough guys - my favorite football player of all-time was Earl Campbell. They asked Bum Phillips if he was in a class by himself. He said he didn't know if he was in a class by himself, but it sure didn't take long to call the roll to get to him. That is Tyler Hansbrough. I know you really needed that." On the comeback victory: "I told them it reminded me of Duke, when we were down nine with three minutes to play in '05. This one may be even wilder. It was looking good and we were looking at a thirty-point butt kicking with about five or six minutes in to the game. Clemson just did beat a Virginia team, at Virginia, by thirty-one points. They are flying high and athletic as all get out. I think they are a big-time, big-time basketball team." Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell Opening Statement: "Obviously a disappointing loss for us today where we led for much of the ballgame. I thought our ability to really put pressure on them out on the perimeter early in the ballgame was important. I thought their ability to put pressure on us out on the perimeter late in the ballgame was obviously important, along with it being just too much Hansbrough inside. I thought our defense really failed us there coming down the stretch. It was like all of sudden we were trying to outscore them, to hold on. As a result of that and our turnovers it put them in a position - by making practically every shot down the stretch - to catch up. Whatever shot they missed they seemed like they got on the offensive rebound and got. I thought we really didn't come to the ball and take care of it as they trapped. I thought that was a situation where we really could have taken advantage of them trapping and really attack. Other than Cliff [Hammonds] we got out of the attack mode and we seemed to be a step slow and tired. As a result of not coming to the ball, they picked a few off that turned into scores." On his team's ability to bounce back: We'll have to see. I told the team that we certainly can't afford to take time to think about this too long. We have tomorrow off and then we have an important game coming up on Thursday. It's getting into the stretch of the season. It's just very important that we put this one behind us and take the positives from it over this four game stretch and play some really good basketball. You have to play basketball well for forty minutes to beat teams at this level. If we understand that and commit to doing that without backsliding then we will be fine. If we take a week or two to get over this, then we are in trouble. We can't do that and I don't expect we will." On the pressure of breaking the road losing streak to Carolina: "You never know, [it may have affected them] a little bit. Certainly sometimes when you feel pressure you slow down, so you never know. We played hard against Virginia, maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe the pressure of the situation had something to do with it. Maybe Carolina and their home crowd made them a step quicker. You never about those things and you just have to move forward. Then the next time you are in that situation, you hope you do a better job. In the meantime, we've got Georgia Tech coming up. We're in the midst of a tough conference race." On the decision to press late in the ballgame: "We decided to attack back and just put us in more of an attack mode because we were back on our heels. I just wanted us to not back up and to get in attack mode which is really our style." OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE
Clemson vs North Carolina
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