Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993 TAG: 9301310172
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
RED-HOT DEACS ICE CAROLINA
Dave Odom, whose only win against North Carolina was as a substitute coach at Virginia, believes the Tar Heels are the nation's top basketball team. So you can imagine he was hard-pressed Saturday to explain how his Wake Forest team mauled Carolina 88-62.Consider that third-ranked Carolina had won 11 straight against the Demon Deacons and 23 of 24.
Consider that the Heels came here after rallying from 21 points down to beat Florida State.
Consider that this stunning margin matched the largest ever for the Deacons in the 182 games between the rivals. The last time it happened was 40 years ago.
"To be able to play that way against anybody makes a coach's day," Odom said. "But to play it against the best team in the country is inexplicable."
The chief executioner for the somehow-unranked Deacons (15-3 overall, 5-2 ACC) was guard Randolph Childress, who staged one of the more explosive 3-point demonstrations in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
Held scoreless until 2:35 remained in the first half, the ACC scoring leader greeted an unexpected Carolina zone with all the gusto of a Rottweiler tearing into a fresh tenderloin.
It was 39-32, Wake, when Dean Smith put his team into a zone. Until then, Childress had tried only four shots. Then he flashed into open areas twice in succession, and hit 3-pointers. In less than a minute, Childress canned his third in a row.
"After I made the first two, I felt I couldn't miss," he said.
He didn't. After a television timeout, Childress made two more from behind the stripe as the crowd of 14,475 finally warmed to the action. In just 2:13, he had scored 15 points and Carolina was back on its heels, 54-34.
Trelonnie Owens, who had carried the Deacs in the first half, scored from 10 feet, then Childress made another 3-pointer.
The Deacs had scored on seven of eight possessions, with Childress getting his six 3-pointers during a span of 3:50. He didn't make any more but finished with 27 points, the most by anybody against Carolina this year.
Because of Wake's longtime history of failure, because the fans not only remembered the UNC-FSU game, but the Carolina game here last year, nobody thought it was over then although the Deacs led by 23.
Last season, the Heels rallied from 22 down to beat Wake in the greatest comeback in their history. However, the difference between then and now, or FSU on Wednesday, was that Wake Forest protected the ball. The Deacs had four turnovers at halftime and seven with five minutes left and the outcome decided. They finished with a deceiving 13.
"We had good spacing," Childress said. "We got the ball in mine and Charlie Harrison's hands."
Harrison, a transfer from Georgetown, was brutalized in the Duke game Jan. 13, the last time the Deacs lost. Since then, he and his teammates have protected the ball well.
Harrison had only two free throws, but he directed a patient attack that consistently got the ball to the open man. He finished with seven assists and no turnovers.
All of the Deacons were solid, but the most surprising was center Derrick Hicks. The ACC's top rebounder in league games, Hicks has averaged fewer than four shots while going to the free-throw line only 17 times in 15 games.
Against Carolina, he scored a career-high 15 points, including nine of 14 free throws.
Hicks seemed stunned by it all - with good reason. "I've got a headache," he said, "from all the fans beating me in the head."
A Raleigh native, Hicks called this win "the biggest high I've ever had in my life."
After Childress finished his personal explosion, the Wake fans became noticeably concerned when Pat Sullivan, George Lynch and Brian Reese all hit 3-pointers. None is considered an outside threat. Could this be another Carolina miracle?
No way. Five consecutive points by Rodney Rogers, who had only one basket in the first half, increased the lead back to 67-47 and the Tar Heels never got closer than 18 after that.
The Tar Heels (17-2, 6-1) shot 40.6 percent (26-of-64), their worst performance of the season. The second-place Deacons shot a sizzling 60 percent (30-of-50), 68 percent in the last half. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: longer version of this story ran in the State edition.