North Carolina Rolls Past Florida State

Carolina advances to Saturday's semifinals with a convincing victory over the Seminoles.

Posted 6:12 p.m. Mar 14, 2008 — Updated 3:11 a.m. Mar 15, 2008

Jake Lloyd

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At halftime of North Carolina's game against Florida State Friday, UNC assistant coach Steve Robinson looked at the box score and emphatically pointed out a single statistic.

Florida State had 16 points in the paint. The top-ranked Tar Heels had just 12.

Head coach Roy Williams focused more on a general trait — he didn't believe the Heels, who held a 35-28 lead at the time, were playing with enough energy.

The Heels (30-2) got the message, and they pulled away in the second half for an 82-70 victory. The No. 1 seed will play the winner of the Virginia Tech-Miami quarterfinal at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

Carolina beat Florida State for the third time and held its opponent to 80 or fewer points for the eighth straight game.

At halftime, the Heels had attempted exactly three free throws. And, to the shock of just about everyone, Tyler Hansbrough hadn't been to the line once. It was the third straight half in which the Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News player of the year hadn't attempted a free throw.

"Yes, I was very (surprised)," Danny Green said.

Williams said the Heels' offense was too perimeter-oriented in the first half.

"We were just more aggressive offensively in the second half than we were in the first half," Williams said. "We settled too much for outside jump shots in the first half as opposed to getting the ball inside by dibble or pass."

Hansbrough got better low-post position in the final 20 minutes and was the beneficiary of his teammates' penetration. Hansbrough finished with 22 points, including 8-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line.

Wayne Ellington scored 19, including four 3-pointers, and Marcus Ginyard added 10 for the Heels.

A play by Green almost seven minutes into the second half exemplified the Heels' new-found focus. The junior wing pump-faked at the top of the key, took a couple dribbles into the lane — which drew the defense's attention — and bounced a perfect pass to Hansbrough, who converted the layup and was fouled.

The play gave the Heels a 46-38 lead. Less than a minute later, Quentin Thomas' finger-roll layup gave them their first double-digit lead at 48-38, and the Seminoles never threatened the rest of the game.

Jason Rich led Florida State with 23 points, Toney Douglas added 18 and Ralph Mims chipped in with 15.

"I wasn't really focused on it," Hansbrough said of getting to the line. "If I get the ball inside the way we attack, I think it just happens.

"It's not a situation where I constantly try to get fouled. It is just something that happens."

Carolina finished 16-of-24 from the line, including 13-of-21 in the second half

"For myself, the adjustment was, I didn't shoot as well in the first half, I wasn't feeling as well," Green said. "In the second half, my jump shot didn't feel like it was on.

"So myself, I just tried to penetrate and find open men, penetrate and dish. So when I penetrated, I found Tyler a couple times. He got some easy baskets. I found Deon (Thompson and) Alex (Stepheson), and they got some easy baskets, got fouled.

"Our adjustment was to get the ball inside and have spacing."

Green was one of four Heels who dished out at least three assists. Ginyard led Carolina with four.

Once the Heels established a double-digit lead, the teams traded baskets the rest of the game, with Florida State not getting closer than seven points.

The Seminoles were able to penetrate the lane almost at will in the first half, but they struggled finishing and didn't help themselves with 11 turnovers.

When Carolina extended a five-point advantage to 12 about midway through the second half, it did a better job of stopping the Seminoles' guards from getting in the lane. The defensive highlight for the Heels was a forced shot-clock violation when FSU's were stuck beyond the 3-point arc.

"They did get in the lane more than we would like them to in the first half," Ellington said. "As a result of that, they made some plays.

"In the second half, that's what we wanted to stop. We came out and we didn't let them get what they wanted, and they took some shots that they didn't want to take.

"We had to pick up our intensity. We had to guard like we knew we had to. "

Carolina shot 52.6 percent from the field compared to 49.1 percent for FSU. The Seminoles made 10 of 21 3-pointers, but they were just 6-of-12 from the free-throw line.

"We had a stretch of about 6 to 7 minutes in the second half where we were really good defensively," Williams said. "And other than that, I thought Florida State's offense won that battle against our defense."

The Seminoles also won the battle of the boards, matching Carolina with 30 rebounds. The Heels out-rebounded their ACC regular-season opponents by 11.4 rebounds a game — the best margin of any league team.

It was a big accomplishment for FSU, which was out-rebounded 50-25 and 39-25 in its two earlier losses to Carolina.

Douglas, who shot a combined 6-for-32 from the floor in Florida State's two regular-season losses to UNC, scored FSU's first points on a 3-pointer and gave FSU its first lead at 7-6 with a twisting, fast-break layup.

After a few lead changes, Carolina extended a one-point advantage to eight in the span of just over a minute. First, the Seminoles — in the process of double-teaming Hansbrough — lost Thompson, who was wide-open for a dunk.

Will Graves proceeded to bank-in a 3-pointer from right in front of the Florida State bench, and a Green transition layup off a FSU miss made the score 30-22 with just over four minutes left in the half.

The Seminoles stayed in the game by out-rebounding Carolina 16-14 and — of course — out-scoring the Tar Heels in the paint 16-12.

But following Robinson's halftime encouragement, the Heels scored 22 inside points in the final 20 minutes compared to 14 for the Seminoles. And it was enough to help them advance to the next round.

"We know there's no way a team should outscore us inside," Ginyard said.

"There's just no way we should get outscored in the paint."

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