Felton Finds Shooting Touch in Win

A little more than a minute into Tuesday's win against Clemson, North Carolina's Raymond Felton cut along the right baseline and turned around just in time to receive an alley-oop from teammate Jawad Williams.

The pass was a little lower than Felton expected, and he failed to convert the layup.

"I should have knocked that down," Felton said afterward.

That's about the only thing the Tar Heel point guard didn't knock down during the first 12 minutes, 9 seconds of the contest.

An unusually scoring-minded Felton came out of the gate ablaze, particularly from behind the 3-point arc, where he confidently nailed 4 of 5 in the first half.

"Coming out, Coach (Matt Doherty) told me to try to look for my shot more, and still get my teammates involved, so that's basically what I tried to do," Felton said. "I got some open shots. I pulled up. I knocked them down."

Doherty has said he's been waiting for Felton to have that breakout scoring game, and it looked early on as if this would be the night.

After Felton swished a 3 over hulking Chris Hobbs with 8:16 remaining in the first half, giving the Tar Heels a commanding 27-12 lead, it seemed safe to give the point guard a little breather.

But four minutes later, the UNC lead had been cut to four points, thanks to a 14-4 Clemson run. Felton was nowhere to be seen during the stretch, having disappeared into the tunnel with an upset stomach.

He re-emerged at the 3:50 mark, feeling a little sluggish but needing to stabilize his reeling squad.

Doherty tried to downplay Felton's absence but then admitted to being relieved when Felton returned.

"I have to coach that team with or without Raymond; I'd rather coach the team with Raymond, but you can't worry about those things at that time," Doherty said. "When I saw him turn the corner coming back to the bench, I had a big grin."

Felton was quiet for a time in the middle portion of the game, but his calming presence on the court kept the Tar Heels from falling far behind.

And down the stretch, the freshman came up huge.

With 21.9 seconds remaining in the game and UNC clinging to a one-point lead, Felton took the ball into the lane and drew a foul.

Coolly, he drained both free throws, giving his team a three-point lead and forcing the Tigers to attempt a 3-pointer, which they missed. There would be no repeat of Felton's costly inability to make free throws at the end of UNC's Jan. 4 overtime loss at Miami.

"There was no doubt," Felton said. "I knew I was going to make them. I've got confidence I can make my free throws. I missed them in Miami -- you're going to miss some, you're going to make a lot."

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