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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC Finally Gets a Victory

The Tar Heels avoided becoming the first team in the program's history to drop its first four games.

As the clock wound down on North Carolina's first conference game of the season, Capel, a senior, and freshman Melvin Scott trapped Georgia Tech's Tony Akins.

Akins tried to pass out of the fray but lost control of the ball. Capel tipped the ball up and ahead to Scott, who was breaking for the Tar Heels' basket in front of a jubilant UNC bench at the Smith Center.

Scott snagged the ball out of the air, drove for the layup, his eighth and ninth points of the game, and got fouled by Halston Lane.

When the ball dropped through the net with 5.1 ticks remaining on the clock, it sealed UNC's first victory of the season. Capel pumped his fists and hopped around by himself at midcourt, reveling and remembering what it felt like to win.

Scott hit the free-throw to make it official -- North Carolina 83, Georgia Tech 77. Not only are the Tar Heels (1-3, 1-0 in the ACC) no longer winless, but they are undefeated in the conference.

UNC doesn't face another ACC foe until Wake Forest on Jan. 5.

"We're 1-0 in the ACC, and we can look at the standings for almost a month and say that we're at the top of the ACC," UNC coach Matt Doherty said. "Hopefully that will give us some confidence, and hopefully we'll stay there for a while."

By winning, the Tar Heels "stopped the bleeding," as Capel put it. They avoided earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first squad in school history to win not one of its first four games.

The losses and the chatter about the possible slide of the program were weighing on the players' minds, whether they would admit it before the win against the Yellow Jackets.

"We kind of shied away from a lot of things during this three-game losing streak," said Capel, who finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals.

"I've shied away from some of the things in my everyday life. It feels good to be out there and have fun again. Not just to win, but to have fun and enjoy each other and reap the benefits from all the hard work that we've done.

"I tried not to read nothing y'all say or talk about. I don't watch ESPN no more. I go home and I watch something that's going to make me laugh because everything y'all say about us is negative."

The victory isn't the only positive the Tar Heels have to take away from the game.

They shot a dismal 35.3 percent from the field and 23.3 percent from 3-point land while averaging 63 points in the three losses. Not so Sunday night.

Although UNC seemed rattled at times by the Yellow Jackets' pressure, the team hit 50.9 percent from the floor, including 57.1 percent in the second half, and 44 percent of its 3s -- both season highs.

The Tar Heels had maintained they were a good-shooting team despite what they had shown ever since an exhibition loss to the EA Sports All-Stars. Finally, they walked the walk. "Until we do it, we can say we're good shooters all we want," Doherty said.

Four players scored in double figures -- Capel, Scott, Brian Morrison

(21 points) and Kris Lang (13 points and 13 rebounds) and 25 of their 27 field goals were assisted.

After three frustrating outings, the bounces went North Carolina's way. Scott banked in a 3 to tie the score at 75 amid a late eight-point Tar Heel spurt. Perhaps things were changing for UNC.

"I didn't say 'glass,'" Scott admitted. "I said, 'God, please.' And it went in."

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The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.