ATLANTA-A momentary loss of cool by Clemson center Ray Henderson resulted in a complete loss of control by his Tigers' teammates Friday against the conference's top seed.
In the first of the day's quarterfinal matchups, ninth-seeded Clemson (12-19) hung even with the heavily favored Tar Heels (24-5) for 24 minutes, but North Carolina ran off four unanswered points and never again faced a tie after Henderson picked up both a personal foul and a costly technical foul with 16:22 to play. Following the four free throws from Henderson's double-mistake, the Tar Heels went on a game-breaking run that blew open a 54-54 tie and ended the Tigers' season with a 99-81 defeat in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.
Despite a difficult game on offense for primary threat Joseph Forte, the Tar Heels hit better than 50 percent from three-point range and scored with ease for much of the game, which avenged last month's loss to Clemson.
"I don't know, I'd like to think that even if there wasn't a technical called, we would have gone on to win the game," UNC coach Matt Doherty said. "We had our heads in the clouds a little bit. We needed something to wake us up and maybe that's what that was."
The technical on Henderson marked the third foul called against the Tigers' starting center in a 32-second span. Henderson was assessed his fourth personal foul after Carolina point guard Ronald Curry collided into him, but subsequent verbal taunts by Henderson resulted in the fifth whistle against him and sent Forte and Curry to the line for four free throws.
The backcourt mates sank all four shots, and the Tigers sank into a nearly six-minute funk in which they scored only eight points.
"Ray got caught, and hopefully he learned a valuable lesson," said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt, who added that Henderson's taunt was only one incident in a game full of verbal sparring by both teams. "I did not think that was a real swing because they went on a run and took [the lead] to 12, but we fought back and cut it to six."
The Tigers' mini-run which cut their deficit in half was sparked by Will Solomon's two three-pointers with nine minutes remaining. Solomon hit a game-high seven shots from beyond the three-point arc, but for much of the afternoon Clemson's only legitimate scoring threat struggled against Tar Heel reserve Max Owens and Carolina's rotation defense. Although he did rack up a game-high 23 points, Solomon also committed more turnovers (four) and missed more field-goal attempts (12) than anyone else on the floor.
Forte was likewise kept in check, but he received far more support from his teammates than his Clemson counterpart. While Solomon accounted for close to 30 percent of his team's points, Forte's unimpressive 6-for-17 shooting night was compensated for by teammates Jason Capel, Kris Lang and Brendan Haywood, who all finished ahead of Forte in the scoring column.
Capel's 23 points on 8-for-9 shooting proved to be the key difference Friday. Shyatt encouraged Clemson to seal off the passing and driving lanes by leaving North Carolina open for three-pointers, but his strategy backfired in large part because of Capel's perfect night from three-point range. The third-year starter connected on six three-pointers for UNC, which as a team shot a devastating 10-for-19 from beyond the arc.
"I was disappointed that they had only shot eight three-pointers in the first half; I would have felt better if they had taken 25 or 30 three-pointers [in the game]," Shyatt said. "We wanted them to do anything that was not driving it to the paint or feeding it into the paint."
But the Tar Heels did all of the above, utilizing a balanced attack that was highlighted by 90 points from their top six scorers. Carolina's triumph put in the distant past memories of last season's ACC tournament first-round loss to Wake Forest that left the Tar Heels wondering whether they would even be invited to the NCAA tournament.
"This time last year we were in the locker room with a lot of uncertainties," Capel said. "We came down here and packed for three days. We're a very confident team; we expect to win."
When Carolina last clashed with Clemson, however, the entirely unexpected happened as the ACC-cellar-dwelling Tigers shocked UNC with a 10-point victory in Littlejohn Coliseum. In preparation for Friday's rematch, Doherty used the humiliation of Feb. 18 as a motivating tool for his team.
"We showed clips of the last game and we showed clips of them storming the court," Doherty said. "If we couldn't get up for this game, we would have had to check our pulse."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.