Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403130154
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GARY McCANN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE LENGTH: Medium
No. 800 in the 33-year career of the North Carolina basketball coach came in the semifinals of the 41st Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Saturday.
It came in overtime, 86-84 over Wake Forest. It came with six seconds left on a 6-foot shot by freshman Jerry Stackhouse.
It came just in time to send the Tar Heels (26-6) into this afternoon's 3:30 title game against Virginia, a 66-61 winner over top-seeded Duke.
It came when every other team in the top five - Arkansas, Connecticut, Duke and Missouri - lost.
And it came when maybe it shouldn't have.
"I think we lost, but it doesn't say so," Smith said. "Wake Forest played better."
Better? Perhaps. Harder? No.
The Tar Heels scrambled back from a five-point deficit in the last 1:15 of regulation to gain a tie at 81 on Dante Calabria's baseline drive. They won it with six seconds left in overtime on Stackhouse's snaking shot in the lane set up by Derrick Phelps' drive and pass.
They won despite an all-America effort by the Deacons' Randolph Childress, who scored 31 points.
"He was," Phelps said, "unbelievable."
When Childress swished an NBA-range 3-pointer with Donald Williams hanging on him and the shot clock clicking down two seconds, the Deacons led 76-70 with 2:48 left in regulation.
"He was way out there with Donald coming at him," Smith said, "and he made it. Most of the time you just say congratulations on the win, but our players wouldn't believe that and came back and won."
From that point, Phelps was assigned to Childress head up. Childress didn't get another point, and Phelps had a hand in all the big plays.
With Wake Forest ahead 80-78 with 53.2 seconds left, the teams swapped turnovers, and Wake Forest's Charlie Harrison made one of two free throws to give the Deacons an 81-78 lead.
Wake Forest coach Dave Odom called time out and instructed Harrison to foul Phelps. With 11.8 seconds to play, Phelps made the first free throw and missed the second, but he grabbed the long rebound, dribbled left and somehow found Calabria on the opposite side of the court.
Calabria drove and banked home a soft shot to tie it.
"I wasn't thinking about what I was going to do," Calabria said. "You just do it. If you have to think, you're not a player."
Odom said he would change only a couple of things - "get the rebound, of course, or have Phelps miss the first and make the second.
"We might be talking about a win instead of a loss."
Childress had a chance to win it for the Deacons at the buzzer, but his 25-foot shot slammed into the back rim and bounced long.
In the overtime, North Carolina got an 83-81 lead with a 10-foot shot by Williams and went up 84-81 on Eric Montross' free throw after Phelps stole a handoff from Trelonnie Owens intended for Childress.
Then came a string of bizarre - both teams might say bad - calls or no calls from referee Dick Paparo.
What looked like a goaltending violation by Stackhouse was not called. Williams was called for a charge. Montross rammed his 7-foot, 275-pound body into 6-4 Marc Blucas and got away with it, and at the other end Phelps was knocked to the floor on a drive.
"They let a lot of things go," Montross said.
Wake Forest tied it with 40 seconds left on Rusty LaRue's 3-pointer.
Then it was Phelps again.
Working the ball for a good shot, Phelps drove left, hoping to dump the ball to Montross, but Stackhouse slipped free on the baseline and flipped in a short shot with six seconds to go.
But the win didn't come until another desperation 3-pointer by Childress hit the rim, bounced straight up and tantalizingly teased the rim before falling to the floor.
Statistically, little mattered except the scoreboard. North Carolina beat the Deacons 50-28 in rebounding. Wake Forest made 12 3-pointers. Carolina had six players in double figures; Wake Forest had two.
"There were so many key plays," Odom said. "Carolina executed down the stretch, but I can't say our guys didn't deserve to win."
And Smith got No. 800, to put him No. 2 and 76 behind Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp.
Asked about the milestone, Smith said, "we were after number 26. Now we're after number 27. One at a time."
by CNB