Men’s Basketball recaps from November 14, 2007:
NORTH CAROLINA 72, DAVIDSON 78
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Wayne Ellington picked up the slack for Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson, scoring 20 points and making key plays late to help No 1-ranked North Carolina avoid a shocking loss in their opener by edging Davidson, 72-68 on Wednesday night.
Trailing for much of the second half, North Carolina closed the game strong. Ellington's free throw with 3:44 left put the Tar Heels ahead to stay. His jumper with just over a minute left made it a three-point game. Lawson, held to one assist with four turnovers, then hit three of four free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Hansbrough had 14 points and 14 rebounds, but was 0-for-1 from the field in the second half, struggling to get shots and getting into foul trouble.
Stephen Curry scored 24 points for Davidson (1-1), which nearly became the latest small school to knock off a major school.
"We were right there," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "A possession here and a possession there, that's how close this game was."
With Mercer beating Southern California and Gardner-Webb stunning Kentucky so far, Davidson was bidding to join the early season surprises. The Wildcats returned all five starters from last season's team that won a school-record 29 games before losing to Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
They had a tough time stopping Hansbrough early.
Hansbrough, the leading vote getter on The Associated Press' preseason All-America team, dominated the first half with 12 points and 11 rebounds to help North Carolina rally from an early seven-point deficit to take a 38-31 lead.
But Hansbrough and the Tar Heels went cold to start the second half. Hansbrough also lost his cool to help Davidson's comeback.
Hansbrough was called for a foul on Andrew Lovedale while fighting for position on the perimeter with 17:07 left. The two starting jawing and then Hansbrough gave him a slight shove. Referee Mike Wood immediately called a technical foul on Hansbrough, and Davidson turned it into four consecutive points to take a 39-38 lead.
"I got a foul, and I started walking to our huddle," Hansbrough said. "I guess their team was huddling up, and things got congested there."
Hansbrough went more than 7 minutes without scoring to start the second half and Davidson built a 50-46 lead on William Archambault's 3-pointer with just under 10 minutes left.
The Tar Heels, who missed 12 of their first 14 shots to start the second half, started going inside with Ellington getting key hoops with Hansbrough on the bench with four fouls.
Danny Green added 11 points for North Carolina, which overcame 19 turnovers.
"It was good for our team to have some key guys get in foul trouble, and players came off the bench and really helped us," Hansbrough said.
Curry, the son of former NBA 3-point specialist Dell Curry, was only 8-for-22 from the field and 2-for-12 from 3-point range.
Jason Richards added 12 points and eight assists, but Davidson hit just 4-of-22 3-point attempts and was outrebounded 40-33 as it played with two ailing big men, Boris Meno and Max Paulhus Gosselin.
"The No. 1 team in the country and we were right there with them," Curry said. "It shows that we've got better since last year. But we've still got a lot of work to do to win one of these games. We'll have more opportunities."
It was the start of an ambitious schedule for Davidson, which also plays No. 2 UCLA, No. 13 Duke and No. 21 North Carolina State.
While it was a Davidson home game, the crowd was predominantly pro-Tar Heels. North Carolina agreed to the game to get players acclimated to Charlotte Bobcats Arena, which will host the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and the NCAA East Regional.
Williams thinks this game will make them that much better come March.
"I think it's great even if you lose," Williams said. "But it's a heck of a lot better to get tested like that and win."
WESTERN CAROLINA 87, METHODIST 76
CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Playing its fourth game in six days, Western Carolina overcame early struggles with a strong second half run to build a double-digit lead, and then held off the feisty Methodist University Monarchs for an 87-76 victory Wednesday night in the 2007-08 home opener in the Ramsey Center.
Western snapped its two-game losing skid to move to 2-2 on the young season, while also improving its record to 15-6 in home openers since moving into Ramsey in the 1986-87 season.
"We struggled a little bit tonight. I thought we played like it was our fourth game in six days," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter. "Our legs were very tired out there. We tried to play a lot of people, but some of our younger players are still learning and I thought we were a step slow in a lot of things we were doing. Give Methodist credit, they are a very dangerous type team to be playing when you are like that. I thought they were very athletic and very explosive and came in her with a great mind set."
Sophomore forward Nick Aldridge posted his 24th-consecutive double figure scoring night with a game-high 22 points to lead the Catamounts. The South Webster, Ohio, native added five rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and three steals in 29 minutes of action. Freshman guard Michael Porrini finished with his first career double-double tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds, just missing the triple-double with a career-best seven assists and four steals.
Rounding out Western's double-digit scorers was sophomore Brandon Giles with 13 points and four assists. Freshman Camden Miller just missed double figures, adding eight points off the bench for WCU including a 2-for-2 showing from long range. Classmate Blake Gallagher added eight boards off the bench behind Porrini's game-high 10.
"Mike (Porrini) has a great feel for the game and is a tremendous competitor. He has that ability when he gets tired to dig down deep and still make plays and compete. He had some terrific finishes tonight. I thought he was the one guy at halftime stepping up and made some comments that were very appropriate about the things we needed to do in the second half," Hunter added.
Using a 9-2 run midway through the first half, Methodist staked itself to a seven-point, 19-12 lead on one five Billy McDade 3-pointers. However, the Catamounts rallied over the next two minutes to reclaim the advantage with eight unanswered points, going inside for four points from Aldridge, a Porrini jumper and a dunk by freshman Richie Gordon.
Tied at 26, a 7-0 spurt by the Catamounts marked the sixth lead change of the opening stanza and gave WCU its largest lead of the half, matching the Monarchs' largest advantage at 33-26. Methodist was able to trim Western's advantage to three at the break, 35-32.
In the second half, Western Carolina was able to balloon its lead to a game-high 20 points, 74-54, with just under seven minutes remaining on the Ramsey Center clock. However, the Monarchs, who drained a total of 10 3-pointers on the night, chipped away and even cut it to single-digits, 85-76, on a pair of Eric Thomas free throws with 1:24 remaining. Yet, the Catamount defense helped preserve the win forcing five missed shots and a pair of turnovers inside the closing seconds for the final, 87-76, tally.
Western shot 51.4-percent from the floor, while Methodist countered with 46.4 from the field, including 41.7-percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The Catamounts, though, had a commanding 58-to-28 point advantage in the paint.
McDade led four Monarchs in double digits with 17 points including five treys, with senior Brian Lane adding 15 points. Junior Travis McBryde chipped in 12 points off the bench, while A. B. Lehman finishing with 11 points and four assists in the loss.
Western Carolina returns to action next Tuesday, Nov. 20 as it hosts mountain-rival, UNC Asheville in the Ramsey Center at 7:03 pm in the Parkway Series. The Catamounts downed the Bulldogs in Asheville last season, 61-46, and will go for its third-straight win in the series. Overall, Western leads the Parkway Series, 4-0, with wins in men's and women's cross country, volleyball and women's soccer already this fall.