ATLANTA— Before Jason Capel enjoys another moment like Friday’s performance in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, he needs to work on his terminology.
“You see guys on TV talking about going through the zone,” Capel said. “I guess that’s how I felt today.”
In the zone, Jason. Not through it. Going through the zone would denote being in it, then leaving to join the brick-layers outside.
Clearly, Capel never left at all.
The Tar Heel junior broke two North Carolina 3-point shooting records in his team’s 99-81 quarterfinal victory over Clemson. He drained 6-of-6 attempts from the 3-point arc to finish with a game-high 23 points.
Ironically, the UNC mark for most 3-point shots made in an ACC Tournament game (five) and best percentage (5-for-6, 83 percent) belonged to none other than rookie head coach Matt Doherty.
“Gosh, congratulations, Cape!” said Doherty, feigning anger when told his record-setting day against N.C. State in the 1983 tourney had been bested.
Doherty also lowered the boom on sports information director Steve Kirschner, saying“You’re fired. You’re supposed to tell me that before the game, not after.”
Kirschner rubbed it in, reminding Doherty that the 3-point line was shorter back then instead of today’s 19-feet, 9 inches.
“Thanks a lot, you’re making it worse!”Doherty replied.
In truth, though, Doherty couldn’t have been happier for Capel. The 6-foot-8 forward’s big day came against a Clemson squad that upended the then-No. 1 Tar Heels in an embarrassing loss earlier this year. Capel also bailed out Tar Heel star guard Joseph Forte, who struggled through another subpar shooting day.
The Tigers’ plan entering Friday’s game was to shut down Forte’s drives to the basket and limit Carolina’s success in the low post with Brendan Haywood and Kris Lang. Using a defense called the triangle-and-2 — where three players play a zone defense in the post and two others play man on the shooters — Clemson’s plan worked.
“Basically we played the triangle to induce 3-point shots,”Clemson head coach Larry Shyatt said. “Our goal was to make them shoot 25 3-pointers, anything not driving to the paint or feeding to the paint.
“But, in the first half they made 7-of-8 3s, which is doubly bad. One, they’re not taking a lot of them. Two, they’re making the ones they take.”
Capel shredded the Tigers’ strategy. He drained 3-pointers on three straight UNC possessions late in the first half, all from virtually the same spot on the floor, the top of the key.
“I’m very confident from that spot,”Capel said. “Secondary break, trailing 3-pointer, I shot that all through high school and feel comfortable with it.”
Capel’s final bomb in the first half came with 1:28 to play and extended Carolina’s lead to five points, the halftime margin. Through 20 minutes, Capel had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and had tied his career best with the four treys.
“I shot them with confidence and I knocked them in,”Capel said. “My team did a great job of putting me in a position to get the open shots.”
Haywood did that with more than just passes out of the post. The Tar Heel big man actually told assistant coach Bob MacKinnon and Doherty that Clemson’s defense limited what he and Lang could do down low when both were in the game. So he suggested limiting either his or Lang’s minutes in favor of getting Capel more shots.
“I said that we need to play that lineup more and I don’t care if it’s me sitting or Kris sitting,”Haywood said. “I told the coaches to play Jason at the 4 (power forward) and just let him shoot and he could have a big night. Jason was big for us.”
Capel helped the Tar Heels pull away in the second half, hitting his fifth 3-pointer a minute into the second half and converting a layup at the 12-minute mark that gave the Heels a 68-58 lead.
His record-setting long-range bomb came with 8:26 to play. The pass from Forte found Capel feeling right at home at the top of the key, and the ball touched nothing but net.
“It felt good. Every shot I shot I knew it was going in. I could shoot it and just turn around and go back down the floor,”Capel said. I don’t know, I just took the shots they gave me.”
As far as Doherty was concerned, of course, Clemson surrendered one open 3-pointer too many. But at least Capel’s record-setting day helped Doherty get a win.
When Doherty set his mark, the Heels fell 91-84 in overtime to the Pack.
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Sportswriter Steve Hanf is covering the ACC Tournament for the Post.
Steve Hanf