Tar Heels beat Duke for their first ACC title under Williams BY SCOTT FOWLER / THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER • PUBLISHED ON MARCH 7, 2005
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orth Carolina cut down the nets — once suffered through an 8-20 season. at the Smith Center Sunday, stickThe Tar Heels deserved a celebration after ing Carolina blue ladders under scoring the final 11 points in one of their the goals and acting like it had just won greatest, loudest comebacks ever against something enormous. Duke. This wasn’t the famous “eight-pointsIn fact, the Tar Heels had — a breathless, in-17-seconds” comeback of 1974, but 11-0 relentless 75-73 victory against Duke to over the final 2 minutes, 40 seconds is clinch its first outright ACC regular-season awfully good. championship since 1993. Along the way, North Carolina center “We will be criticized for it,” North Carolina Sean May had one of the most remarkable coach Roy Williams acknowledged. rebounding games in Tar Heels history. May It was Williams’ idea to celebrate with had 24 rebounds to go along with his 26 the net-cutting. points, the most rebounds by a Tar Heel But Williams — who did the same thing in 37 years. at Kansas several times after conference May finished off the game with rebound No. titles won at home — made the right move 24 after Duke had two shots in the final 10 with this celebration. It was unusual, but seconds to win it — a 3-pointer by J.J. Redick understandable. It was Senior Day. And that rimmed out and a long two-pointer by Williams’ seniors — most notably Jackie Daniel Ewing that wasn’t close. May ended Manuel, Jawad Williams and Melvin Scott up cradling the ball after Ewing’s shot.
Then the fans stormed the court. Roy Williams cleared them off by grabbing a microphone and pleading with them. Then the coach proclaimed to the Smith Centerrecord crowd of 22,125: “We’re going to have a party!” And the net-cutting began. The game felt a lot like the first UNCDuke game a month ago in Durham. In that one, North Carolina made another late comeback to trail by one with 18 seconds left. Raymond Felton then hesitated when he had an opening, botched up the final play, and the Tar Heels turned the ball over without getting a shot. This time, after Ewing made his sixth turnover of the game under heavy pressure, the Tar Heels were down 73-71 with 27 seconds left. This time, Felton took it straight to the basket and drew a foul. But Felton missed the second free throw
off the back rim. After a frantic scrum, Tar Heels freshman Marvin Williams picked up the ball. Marvin Williams had spent much of the game getting his shots stuffed back into his face by Duke’s excellent Shelden Williams. But this time, Marvin Williams banked in a soft 5-footer, got fouled and made the free throw for a 75-73 lead. “Just another story for the history books,” Marvin Williams would say. Coach Mike Krzyzewski called a nice play to try and win in regulation, with Redick curling off a baseline screen. “We were going to win the game, and went with our best player to win it,” Coach K said. But Redick — who, astonishingly, had zero points in the second half — missed the open 3. North Carolina won. The nets went down.
OPPOSITE: UNC’s Marvin Williams celebrates the Tar Heels’ 75-73 win over Duke in 2005 with head coach Roy Williams. Marvin made the winning basket and drew a foul to seal the win. S COTT LEWIS / THE NEWS & OBSERVER YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN • 27
