Defense powers UNC past 'Cats

Kentucky's Ramon Harris hung in the air suspended by momentum and the arm of North Carolina's Deon Thompson.

A second earlier Harris had a clear lane to the hoop for an easy layup but instead of the basket Harris' shot met Thompson.

It was not a pleasant exchange. Harris ended up on the ground with Thompson standing over him screaming" ""Let's go!""

""I think that's what really helped our team"" Thompson said. We were in such a frenzy that first 15 minutes.""

That play set the tone for the kind of treatment No. 1 North Carolina dished out in the post.

It started with Patrick Patterson" who took the heaviest beating from the Tar Heels. At every opportunity UNC players banged bumped or somehow made contact with Patterson. It seemed that at any given point" at least one Tar Heel had a hand on Patterson.

""We got a good lesson on how extremely hard you have to play" Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie said. I think our guys play hard" but they didn't play near hard enough tonight.""

It certainly seemed as though the beating took its toll.

By the second half" Patterson and his frontcourt mate Perry Stevenson spent most of their time around the 3-point line and when Kentucky's bigs did venture into the paint UNC surrounded them with at least two players.

Coach Roy Williams used Ed Davis' length to front Patterson — Davis twice broke up lobs intended for the post — and Tyler Zeller and Thompson to bump and shove him. And as soon as Patterson got into a rhythm against one of UNC's big men" Williams brought in another.

""We've got to get the ball to Patrick" Gillespie said. But Patrick has to get more than two offensive rebounds. He needs to get seven" like Thompson did.""

The result was that Patterson's teammates stopped looking at their big forward and instead ran their offense through trigger-happy guard Jodie Meeks" who laid a whopping 15 bricks for a 25 percent shooting clip on the evening.

And while Patterson's stat line was impressive — 19 points and 11 boards on 8-of-11 shooting most of his points came after the game was already decided. Patterson's first-half stats —six points with only three shots — indicated that he was not involved in the offense during UNC's opening punches.

All told Kentucky's starting posts combined for nine turnovers many of those from throwaways while the post players were out at the top of the key handling the ball.

UNC also took some casualties from their enforcement — Thompson fouled out and Zeller left the game with a wrist injury — but in the end UNC just had too many big bodies to throw at the Wildcats.



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