Felton comes through in end

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- He had Jawad Williams, who had hit a 3-pointer from the same spot on the court only seconds earlier, spinning off a ball screen at the top of the arc.

He also had Sean May establishing position on the edge of the lane, and Melvin Scott and David Noel were looking for the ball on his right along the perimeter.

But at this moment, in this game, the ball in Raymond Felton's hands wasn't going anywhere but in the basket.

Eighteen days after his momentary indecision in the final seconds of a critical road game against Duke prevented the Tar Heels from taking any final shot at all, Felton took matters into his own hands and scored the game-winning points with 18.9 seconds remaining in Sunday's game against Maryland.

"The drive was open -- I had a free lane to the basket," Felton said. "Sean did a good job of sealing his man off, and he couldn't get to me to block my shot or make an attempt to get to my shot."

The entire North Carolina team, Coach Roy Williams included, had emphatically refused to pin the blame on Felton for the disappointing loss in Durham, even though the point guard had appeared to have an opening to drive to the basket on the final possession -- but instead picked up his dribble.

"Raymond took a lot of grief after the Duke game for not trying to make a play when he had an opening in front of him, and I told him at that time it wasn't his fault," Roy Williams said. "It was partly my fault, the staff's fault, the players' fault, the guys that didn't play. It was our team."

And when Felton lifted the Tar Heels to victory with his decisive drive to the basket, he seemed to be making a statement to any critics who still believed his failure to act in Durham cost UNC the game.

But Felton didn't see it that way.

"It was a big shot, OK?" he said. "That's it. A big shot. I don't worry about that Duke game. That's overwith."

But even Sunday's game wasn't over when Felton gave the Tar Heels a two-point lead -- after all, the Terrapins had plenty of time left to attempt the final shot.

Guard John Gilchrist dribbled to the baseline, but his drive ended abruptly as he found himself trapped by David Noel and Felton.

And when Gilchrist tried to split the defenders with a pass to Mike Jones behind the arc, Felton swatted the ball out of bounds.

"Anything could have happened," Felton said. "He could have stepped out of bounds, he could have thrown it away. I got a hand up and knocked the ball out of bounds, but if he had gotten the pass out, hopefully one of our teammates would have went over and stolen the ball."

And when Sean May's rejection of Jones' final shot sealed the victory, Felton had proven without question that he could carry his team to a last-second victory in hostile territory.

"He's a basketball player," Noel said. "He knows you have to have a short-term memory in basketball. He definitely just took over for us and made a big shot at the end."

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.