THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602110259
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHAPEL HILL, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Look at the numbers and you might believe the North Carolina team that seemed the class of the ACC only two weeks ago is falling apart.
The Tar Heels lost their third straight game, 92-83, to Georgia Tech in overtime Saturday, and that hadn't happened since 1992.
Much worse, on the heels of Tuesday's loss to Maryland, it was the first time since 1990 they have lost two in a row at home.
But instead of reaching for the panic button, UNC coach Dean Smith claimed he actually came away from the defeat feeling better about his young team, which dropped to 16-7 overall, 7-4 ACC.
Tech, improving to 15-10, 8-3, took second place in the league from the Tar Heels.
``We did so many good things that I am going to treat this as a win,'' Smith said, ``and as well as we played, I don't think we'll lose any confidence.''
The Tar Heels did play well until going dry in overtime, but one thing they couldn't do was cool off Tech senior guard Drew Barry, and that proved fatal.
Barry had a career-high nine 3-pointers and finished with 30 points, also a career best.
``Barry was just uncanny,'' Smith said, ``as was their entire team.''
North Carolina led 74-69 with 4:10 left in regulation, but a pair of 3-pointers by Barry and freshman Stephon Marbury's short jumper with 10 seconds left put the game into overtime.
The Jackets opened an 87-80 lead before UNC got its first and only goal in overtime, a 3-pointer by Dante Calabria with 41 seconds remaining.
``I'm not like coach Smith in that it feels like a loss to me,'' Calabria said.
``But if one or two things had gone our way, we'd have won. We played hard, and that's all we can do.''
Barry had only one point in the overtime period, but the Jackets agreed they wouldn't have made it that far without him.
``To beat North Carolina here, you've got to have someone to step up and really play well,'' Tech coach Bobby Cremins said.
``Today, Drew was that someone for us. He had a fantastic shooting day. He shot the eyes out of it. I don't know if anyone could have done anything (to stop him.).''
Barry, who did not have a point in the first 10 minutes, missed his first two attempts and then hit eight straight goals, including seven 3-pointers.
Barry said he got going when North Carolina went to a zone defense and left the corners open to him.
By the time the Tar Heels got around to trying to defend him, he was too hot to handle.
``I'm on fire,'' he yelled a couple of times after sinking long 3-pointers.
Barry also had six assists, including a couple of awesome passes to Marbury for crucial goals.
``I wanted to play well in this game, and I got some motivation by a reading a story in a local newspaper this morning that said ``M&M'' (Marbury and Michael Maddox) were the leaders of this team,'' Barry said.
``I didn't know you had to be a scorer to be considered a leader, but hopefully now they'll say I can lead, too.''
Cremins recalled that Barry took only four shots in Wednesday's victory over Duke, ``when the ball wasn't coming to him.''
``You never know who is going to be hot on this team,'' Barry said. ``I was hot today, and my teammates got me the ball.''
The Tar Heels were hot, too, especially in the first half, when they hit 64 percent of their shots but still trailed 45-39 at the break.
North Carolina scored 11 straight points early in the second half for a 50-47 lead, but Tech came back again with its outside shooting.
The Yellow Jackets made a school-record 16 3-pointers overall.
``Tech played a great game. I thought they were just tremendous,'' Smith said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Georgia Tech's Eddie Elisma, left, celebrates with teammate Drew
Barry, who scored a career-high 30 points.
by CNB