No. 5 North Carolina routs No. 11 Miami 96-71 for ACC lead
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Two days after a crushing loss to rival Duke, North Carolina coach Roy Williams gathered his players, showed them just two plays on film and told them to move on no matter how much it hurt.
“That’s behind us now,” Williams said he told them.
The fifth-ranked Tar Heels responded with a stunningly dominating performance in a critical Atlantic Coast Conference game, romping to a 96-71 victory over No. 11 Miami on Saturday.
In a matchup of teams tied for the league lead, North Carolina (22-5, 11-3) shot 54 percent and shut down Miami at every turn to lead by as many as 38 points. The Tar Heels had six players score in double figures, dominated the glass and flirted with their second 100-point performance this season.
“This one had a little more oomph to it because we did lose to Duke and it hurt a lot,” said senior Brice Johnson, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds. “We just had to put that behind us and be able to move on.”
The Tar Heels were coming off Wednesday’s 74-73 loss to the Blue Devils, a game in which they led nearly all night but lost control in the final 3 minutes. And that allowed the Hurricanes (21-5, 10-4) to climb into a first-place tie with their fifth straight win.
This also started a run of four straight against ranked league opponents for Miami, with coach Jim Larranaga saying it was a challenging stretch of games “but ones you look forward to.”
The first turned into a dud, thanks to the Tar Heels turning an overwhelming performance they haven’t shown consistently this season — the kind that reminded why they were picked the nation’s top-ranked team in the preseason.
“Well, that’s what happens when one team plays really well and the other doesn’t play well at all,” Larranaga said. “They had our number from start to finish. We didn’t do anything we planned on doing.”
The Tar Heels led 42-33 at halftime then opened with a 10-0 burst to turn this into a blowout. At one point, the Tar Heels hit seven straight shots and made 14 of 19 to open the second half, while the Hurricanes managed five shot attempts and five turnovers in the first 8 minutes.
UNC made 9 of 20 3-point attempts after going 1 for 13 against the Blue Devils. Heck, Johnson even hit a roughly 90-foot shot from his own charge circle, only it came well after the halftime horn.
“I feel like Carolina made every shot,” Miami’s Sheldon McClellan said. “We didn’t do a good job guarding those guys.”
Angel Rodriguez and Ivan Cruz Uceda each scored 12 points to lead Miami.
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TIP-INS
Miami: The Hurricanes made 9 of their last 11 shots with the outcome long decided to reach 42-percent shooting for the game. … Miami made 15 of 26 free throws and was outrebounded 46-29. … The Hurricanes lost Ja’Quan Newton in the second half to what Larranaga said appeared to be a bone bruise to his left shin.
UNC: Justin Jackson had 15 points and a career-high eight of UNC’s 21 assists. … Isaiah Hicks started over Kennedy Meeks and scored 12 points. … Freshman reserve Kenny Williams III had a scary first-half fall and landed on the back of his neck, but was back on the bench for the second half.
BIG BLOWOUT
The 25-point margin of victory was North Carolina’s largest against an AP Top 25 team since beating No. 13 Michigan State 98-63 in Detroit in December 2008.
POOR EXECUTION
Miami had nine assists on 25 baskets, with only three in the first half.
“I think mentally, we were kind of in individual mode,” Larranaga said. “We didn’t look like a team.”
UP NEXT
Miami hosts No. 7 Virginia on Monday.
UNC visits North Carolina State on Wednesday.
No. 18 Louisville rallies past No. 20 Duke 71-64
By GARY B. GRAVES=
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) _ Damion Lee scored 24 points, including three 3-pointers during Louisville’s furious second-half rally from a 13-point deficit, to the push the 18th-ranked Cardinals past No. 20 Duke 71-64 on Saturday.
Louisville trailed 44-31 with 17:10 remaining before battling back and using an 8-0 run with consecutive 3s by Lee and a slam by Jaylen Johnson after Chinanu Onuaku stole an inbounds pass for a 58-55 lead. Lee added another long-range shot and Johnson made a jumper to make it 63-59 before a final game-changing sequence for the Cardinals (21-6, 10-4 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Officials then whistled Duke guard Grayson Allen for charging _ his fifth foul _ and assessed him a subsequent technical foul for arguing the call to end his day after scoring a game-high 29 points for the Blue Devils (20-7, 9-5).
Lee and Johnson combined for five free throws in the final minutes to close out an emotional victory for Louisville, which avenged a loss 12 days ago at Duke.
Rowan helps NC State edge Clemson 77-74
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ Maverick Rowan scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half to help North Carolina State beat Clemson 77-74 on Saturday.
Abdul-Malik Abu added 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Wolfpack (14-13, 4-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their third consecutive home game.
Caleb Martin had 16 points off the bench for N.C. State.
Jaron Blossomgame scored a career-high 33 points to lead Clemson (16-11, 9-6). Sidy Djitte added 12 points and eight boards for the Tigers.
The Wolfpack won despite a subpar shooting performance by point guard Anthony Barber. The ACC’s leading scorer at 23.7 points, Barber scored a season-low eight points on 1-of-12 shooting from the field.
Barber missed his first nine shots before banking in a floater to extend N.C. State’s lead to 66-61 with 5:27 to play.
Carrera’s 20 points lift Gamecocks over Gators 73-69 OT
By PETE IACOBELLI
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Michael Carrera scored 20 points including the go-ahead foul shots in overtime to lift South Carolina to a 73-69 victory over Florida on Saturday.
The Gamecocks (22-5, 9-5 Southeastern Conference) trailed 39-32 early in the second half before rallying to force the extra period and end a seven-game losing streak to the Gators (17-10, 8-6).
Carrera’s free throws with 1:36 to go in overtime put South Carolina up 70-69.
Florida, trailing 72-69, had a chance to tie in the final 10 seconds, but Chris Chiozza missed a 3-pointer.
Sindarius Thornwell added 17 points for South Carolina and Carrera grabbed 15 rebounds for his third straight double-double and ninth this season.
Dorian Finney-Smith had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Gators.
The Florida senior had a chance to end things in regulation, but missed a foul shot that left the game tied with 20 seconds remaining.
Winthrop alone in first after 81-80 win over Asheville
ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) _ Jimmy Gavin scored 26 points and made a steal at the end, and Winthrop held off UNC Asheville 81-80 on Saturday to break a first-place tie with the Bulldogs in the Big South Conference.
The victory gave the Eagles (20-7, 12-4) a season sweep of the Bulldogs (18-10, 11-5) plus a one-game lead with two regular-season contests to go.
Keon Johnson’s basket with 11 seconds left gave the Eagles an 81-77 lead. Asheville’s Kevin Vannatta hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left, and teammate Dwayne Sutton then stole the ball but Gavin stole it back.
Xavier Cooks added 15 points and nine rebounds and Johnson 14 points for Winthrop, which was 10 of 24 from the arc.
Vannatta scored 21 points, Sam Hughes and Dylan Smith 13 apiece and Ahmad Thomas had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Asheville.
Winthrop led the entire second half and was up 13 with 10:15 remaining.
