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SPORTS

Sweat-free win for North Carolina

Sunday, December 13, 2009
(Updated 2:37 pm)

— You know those tournament games in March when a No. 16 seed plays a No. 1 seed in a hopeless mismatch?

This was one of those games.

With its starting shooting guard and its backup point guard both watching from the bench in stylish street clothes, No. 11 North Carolina still jumped out to a 16-1 lead and crushed Presbyterian 103-64 Saturday night in front of a quiet crowd at the Smith Center.

Well, mostly quiet.

One heckler in the North Carolina cheering section behind the Tar Heels bench was loud enough to irk coach Roy Williams, earning the man — who security said was intoxicated and not in his ticketed seat — an escort out of the Dean Dome late in the second half.

"I don't think anybody (in those seats) should yell anything negative at our players. Period," Williams said. "Let's don't make it a bigger thing than it is, but I just don't think anybody who comes in on our tickets to watch our game should yell negative things toward our players."

Out on the court, Ed Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Deon Thompson had 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting as the Tar Heels (8-2) drubbed the youngest team in the nation.

Chase Holmes scored 22 of his game-high 29 points in the second half to lead the Blue Hose (2-8), which started four freshmen and a sophomore — Holmes — against North Carolina. Presbyterian, which is in its third year of transition to NCAA Division I athletics, has no seniors on its roster and redshirted its best three players this year.

North Carolina played without two of its best, too.

Senior guard Marcus Ginyard, who missed all but three games last season while recovering from left foot surgery, sat out because of foot pain. The bad news is it was the same troublesome left foot. The good news is the pain is in a different spot and unrelated to last year's stress fracture.

Ginyard first felt the pain Monday, and didn't practice again this week. Medical tests showed nothing out of place.

"It wasn't a relief at all," Ginyard said. "Actually, it kind of sucked being back there with the doctors instead of being at practice."

Backup point guard Dexter Strickland also sat out after injuring his left leg in practice Friday.

"He stole the ball, went down, jumped up and dunked it," Williams said. "He felt something pop. We thought it was his hamstring, and didn't really know what it was. &ellipses; The ACL looked good, the MCL looked good. He just has a little swelling, so we decided to hold him out."

Both Ginyard and Strickland expect to play in Carolina's next game, at No. 2 Texas this Saturday.

Short-handed or not, the Heels dominated Presbyterian. They outrebounded the Blue Hose 48-26, held Presbyterian to two field goals in the first 11 minutes while building a 32-5 lead and led by as many as 47 points.

Larry Drew finished with 12 points and nine assists, and Thompson scored his points in 18 minutes of playing time.

"We had some bad practices this week," Thompson said. "We didn't get too much out of practice, but I think we got a lot out of this game."

Thompson hit 5-of-6 free throws, and he was at the line when the heckler yelled for him to miss.

"I saw him," Thompson cracked. "Coach has a lot of pull around here, huh? To be able to get somebody kicked out of a game is pretty impressive. The guy said I was going to miss it, and obviously I didn't miss it."

The heckler missed the rest of the game. And Presbyterian clearly missed its three top players.

Those three — Al'Lonzo Coleman, Josh Johnson and Pierre Miller — scored 54 percent of the Blue Hose's points as sophomores last season. But they opted to sit out as juniors so they could rejoin the Blue Hose with two years of eligibility remaining. That way, they will be fifth-year seniors in the 2011-12 season when Presbyterian becomes a full-fledged member of the Big South and can play in the conference tournament — and possibly the NCAA tournament — for the first time.

The Blue Hose already know what it feels like to be a No. 16 seed.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

PRESBYTERIAN (2-8) — Holmes 11-18 5-7 29, Troyli 2-12 0-0 4, Reynolds 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 2-7 0-0 5, Faircloth 2-8 0-0 5, Mutakabbir 2-7 0-0 6, Hargrave 1-3 0-0 3, Allen 4-5 0-0 10, Davis 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 25-61 5-7 64.

NORTH CAROLINA (8-2) — Graves 0-6 0-0 0, Thompson 7-10 5-6 19, Davis 6-8 8-9 20, Watts 4-8 0-3 9, Drew II 5-7 0-0 12, McDonald 3-6 1-1 7, Zeller 2-5 1-1 5, Henson 4-6 1-2 11, Campbell 1-3 0-0 3, D.Wear 4-7 0-0 8, T.Wear 3-7 0-0 6, Petree 0-0 0-0 0, Thornton 1-1 0-0 3, Gallagher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 40-74 16-22 103.

Halftime—North Carolina 56-21.
3-point goals—Presbyterian 9-23 (Allen 2-3, Holmes 2-3, Mutakabbir 2-4, Hargrave 1-3, Smith 1-4, Faircloth 1-6), North Carolina 7-23 (Drew II 2-3, Henson 2-4, Thornton 1-1, Campbell 1-3, Watts 1-4, Zeller 0-1, McDonald 0-1, D.Wear 0-1, Graves 0-5).
Fouled out—None.
Rebounds—Presbyterian 26 (Holmes 6), North Carolina 48 (Davis 10).
Assists—Presbyterian 9 (Davis 3), North Carolina 25 (Drew II 9).
Total fouls—Presbyterian 14, North Carolina 8.
A—18,596.

Comments

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Bilbo

December 15, 2009 - 8:25 am EST

It now seems the person was not drunk and not asked to produce a ticket. He was thrown out by "Ol' Roy" simply for cheering for Presbyterian. Shame on UNC for spinning this and Roy for being so callous. Remember, Tarheel fans: You guys travel well to other teams arenas. Keep your traps shut, or face the consequences set up by Roy's prescedent!!!

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