12:30 A.M." SUNDAY JAN. 5 -- When Ty Lawson looked up and saw North Carolina's deficit against Boston College had grown to 14" he knew it was now-or-never time.
""We had to get stops. That's what I was thinking. I was telling everybody" we have to get this stop. And then we got a couple of stops" but then some of our shots just didn't fall.""
And that was the difference Sunday – Boston College made the stops and the shots in an 85-78 win against the No. 1 Tar Heels.
UNC had 15 turnovers; BC had 11 steals. The Eagles registered five blocks. They had 17 points off turnovers to UNC's five.
And if the numbers didn't say enough"" the run of play certainly did.
Three times in the second half momentum seemed to swing for the Tar Heels.
When BC guard Rakim Sanders missed both of two free throws to keep the game within 10. When Joe Trapini couldn't in-bound the ball in the required five seconds and turned it over to UNC with less than three minutes left. When Tyler Hansbrough went to the line three times in less than a minute.
But Hansbrough missed three of his last five free throws – and UNC shot only 19 percent for 3-pointers in the second half – and the team was left short of making up the 15-point deficit and ruing what might have been.
""15-27 (from the free throw line) is not good" and especially when a lot of those on the front end of those are one-and-one" coach Roy Williams said after the game. It is part of the game; we have to make shots from the free throw line and make shots away from the basket to get over the hump.
""Again"" when you shoot 29 percent it's hard to come back on people.""
In the first half" UNC shot 50 percent. In the second the Tar Heels shot 29. Meanwhile Boston College increased to 48 percent accuracy in the second half and got nine quick points from benchman Reggie Jackson who lit up from inside finishing 8-for-14 with 17 points.
In short in Hansbrough's words" nothing went right for the Tar Heels.
""I think that sums it up" he said. We didn't do the things that we wanted to – shots weren't falling" and defensively I think we had some lapses.""
And even when Boston College looked on the verge of collapse near the end of the game"" they made plays when they needed to. That was the difference Sunday.
""We just really wanted to play the way we wanted to play" BC coach Al Skinner said.
Let's come in and execute our stuff and adhere to the things that we do. We're not a team that's going to win a track meet by any means" and let's not get caught up in that.""
BC controlled the pace the entire way"" and that meant UNC was constantly playing catch-up. Only Sunday night they couldn't catch up.
""We missed a layup" a follow dunk and another wide-open layup because (the Eagles) sprint back and do what they're supposed to do Williams said. It is not characteristic for our team to play the way we did today. Hopefully" it will not be characteristic for us to play like that again.""
