CHAPEL HILL—Jason Capel claims that he quit reading newspapers after North Carolina lost to Hampton in the season opener more than three months ago.
So when Capel heard students near the UNC bench begin chanting, “48” with 28.3 seconds left, the senior wasn’t quite sure what they meant.
Clemson is all too familiar.
North Carolina, which had never lost to the Tigers in 47 previous meetings in Chapel Hill, added another victory to the list with a 96-78 win on Wednesday night at the Smith Center.
The Tar Heels have seen many monumental streaks go into oblivion during this season of struggles, but they can hold on to perhaps the most impressive one for at least another year.
“I heard the fans chanting something,” Capel said. “At least we kept one streak alive, and we can hold our heads high.”
Capel played his last game at the Smith Center and finished with the best scoring output of his career in what was probably the Tar Heels best team effort of the season.
Capel knocked down three 3-pointers in a row in the first 2:25 to put UNC (8-18, 4-11 ACC) ahead 10-2, and he finished 8-for-12 from the floor and 9-for-12 from the line to score a career-best 28 points.
Capel joined fellow senior Kris Lang on the bench for good with 3:27 left and the Tar Heels cruising 90-67.
“It was my last game, so I was going to shoot the ball,” Capel said. “I came out slinging and felt good, and I think people fed off me.”
The rest of the Tar Heels took a cue from the free-firing Capel, but so did Clemson sophomore Tony Stockman, who scored 28 first-half points.
Fourteen of the Tar Heels’ first 19 attempts from the floor came from beyond the arc, and UNC hit seven of those tries to take a 29-12 lead.
Stockman, who had already hit his first two 3-point attempts, hit 6 of 8 during the next 10 minutes and scored 22 of Clemson’s final 28 points leading up to intermission.
The Tigers (13-16, 4-12) trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half, but they went to the locker room facing only an eight-point deficit.
“Sometimes you get hot, throw them all up, and they all go in,”said Stockman, who finished with 30 points.
Stockman’s marvelous performance lasted only 20 minutes, though. With Jackie Manuel and Adam Boone chasing him around the perimeter, Stockman hit only 1 of 6 shots in the second half.
Stockman got his only bucket on a breakaway layup with 10:34 left, but the Tar Heels led 70-50 by that point.
“The goal was to be there on the catch,”Boone said. “In the first half we gave him a second or two, and that’s all he needs to get his shot off.”
Boone, who finished with 13 points and a career-high eight assists, was one of five Tar Heels to reach double figures.
Manuel, who got going offensively with two putbacks of Boone misses, scored a career-high 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Freshman Jawad Williams came up with 14 points, and senior Brian Bersticker added 10.
“The team played the best game of the year, from start to finish,” UNC coach Matt Doherty said.
The win gives the Tar Heels a reasonable chance of avoiding next Thursday’s play-in game of the ACC Tournament. If Georgia Tech tops Florida State on Saturday, the Tar Heels, Tigers and Seminoles will likely finished tied for seventh in the league with 4-12 marks.
UNC would get the edge in the tiebreaker because it owns a 3-1 record against the other two schools involved.
Two of those wins came at the expense of the Tigers, who haven’t lost by less than nine points in their visits to Chapel Hill during the last 10 years.
“The reason there’s a streak is because we’ve played better than Clemson in Chapel Hill,”Doherty said. “There’s no magical dust or demons under the rim.”
n
NOTES: The Tigers’ streak is bad, but Brown has lost 52 consecutive games at Princeton dating back to 1929. ... Clemson coach Larry Shyatt entered the press room after the game and opened by saying,“Well, we didn’t break the streak.” ... Clemson has entered games against UNC in Chapel Hill with a better record eight times but lost each time. ... Tar Heel senior Joe Everett hit a baby hook with 15.9 seconds left and now has eight points this season.
n
Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
.
Today's News
