It’s Survival of the Finest for Tar Heels

HARTFORD, Conn. —  It would have been as if, say, UC Santa Barbara decked No. 1-ranked UCLA in the NCAA tournament.

Actually, it would have been bigger.

Santa Barbara might at least be the favorite team in its own hometown.

North Carolina Charlotte, the little cousin of North Carolina, almost told the Tar Heels to hit the Tobacco Road on Saturday in what would have been the biggest upset of the NCAA tournament and a stunning moment for the Tar Heel State. But in the end, Charlotte lost in overtime, 93-83, in the second round of the East Regional at the Hartford Civic Center.

“I think UNCC is the best ‘eight’ seed I’ve ever seen,” North Carolina Coach Bill Guthridge said after the schools met for the first time in history.

“Definitely, we ducked a bullet,” Guthridge said. “It’s the kind of game you have to win. Jim Valvano used to say, ‘Survive and advance. Survive and advance.’ That’s what we did today. UNC Charlotte is a great team that played a great basketball game.”

Diego Guevara, a Charlotte freshman guard from Venezuela, made the shot that would have been heard ‘round the state of North Carolina for decades if the Tar Heels hadn’t been practically flawless down the stretch--making nine consecutive free throws at the end of regulation, then eight more in overtime for a devastating 17 in a row.

Guevara’s shot, a three-point dagger from the left wing with 2.9 seconds left in regulation, tied the score, 74-74, and forced overtime.

“It was a terrific shot,” North Carolina’s Antawn Jamison said. “I was right there on him and thought I at least got a piece of it, but I looked around and it was in the basket.

“That was the same way they played the whole game. They were relentless on the boards, and they played with heart out there the whole game. They were just trying to get to the Sweet 16.”

Instead, North Carolina advances to the East Regional at Greensboro, N.C., where it will play Michigan State on Thursday. The Spartans ended Princeton’s season, 63-56, in the other second-round game at Hartford.

It marks the 16th time in the last 18 seasons North Carolina has reached the round of 16, so you get the idea. Charlotte beating North Carolina in the second round would be more of an upset in North Carolina than Jesse Helms losing an election.

Guevara’s shot wasn’t the end of regulation, though, with confusion and what might have been a fiery controversy reigning in the final seconds, if either team had won because of the referees’ call.

After Guevara’s shot, Jamison got off a futile fall-away heave from near the North Carolina bench before time ran out. But Tom Harrington’s whistle had blown, and as everyone wondered if Jamison was going to the free-throw line for a chance to win it, the officials huddled and ruled instead that it was Charlotte’s ball.

The reason? An inadvertent whistle, and the possession arrow pointed to Charlotte.

That gave Charlotte one more chance too, but DeMarco Johnson didn’t get his shot off before the buzzer, and it was well short anyway.

In overtime, the Tar Heels took over, powering their way inside as they had been unable to earlier, and making free throw after free throw.

North Carolina (32-3) scored 12 points in a row in the extra period, turning an 81-81 tie into a 93-81 lead before Charlotte scored the final basket.

With that, the 49ers (20-11) are on their way back to Charlotte, where they play third fiddle to North Carolina and the NBA’s Hornets.

“First of all, I want to be perfectly clear. There are no moral victories,” Charlotte Coach Melvin Watkins said. “The kids worked too hard. We expected to win. We think we should have won. But Carolina is an awfully good team, and did what it had to in the closing minutes.”

Johnson, a high school rival of Jamison’s in Charlotte, was terrific early in the game and did his best Willis Reed imitation in the second half, returning to the game after limping into the locker room with a twisted knee for about two minutes.

Johnson scored 23 points and had seven rebounds for Charlotte, which pounded the Tar Heels on the boards in the first half, outrebounding them by 12 and getting 15 offensive rebounds to score 11 second-chance points.

“They played tremendously hard and did an excellent job of banging me around. I was really impressed,” said Jamison, the probable national player of the year whose 19-point, 12-rebound performance gave little indication of how thoroughly he was held in check.

Shammond Williams scored 32 points and made six of nine three-point attempts to carry the Tar Heels, along with Vince Carter, who scored 24.

Point guard Sean Colson was Charlotte’s other big gun, with 21 points and 10 assists.

The crowd of 16,105 ended up in the underdog’s corner, and with an upset of North Carolina likely to open the bracket for hometown-favorite Connecticut, the fans roared a lot louder than they used to when the NHL’s Hartford Whalers played here. The crowd couldn’t get Charlotte past North Carolina’s will to win down the stretch, though.

The first time these teams met won’t be the last. A game is scheduled for next season after North Carolina declined to play Charlotte for many years.

“I’m sure next year’s game is going to be another great game,” Guthridge said.

Don’t bet on another after that, if the Tar Heels can help it.