Jordan WongSPORTS EDITOR
Jordan Wong
Rutland shot six-for-19 at UNC.
Jordan Wong
Tar Heel Antawn Jamison goes up for two of his 12 points Wednesday
CHAPEL HILL -- The road-tripping Demon Deacons laid claim to their first losing streak in two years Wednesday night, bowing to the host Tar Heels in nearly every phase of a 74-60 loss.
"Our team is down right now -- no doubt about that," Head Coach Dave Odom said. "Our confidence is probably a little bit shaken."
Senior Tim Duncan spent most of the evening in a doomed attempt to sweep back the ocean with a broom, dropping 20 points on the red-hot Heels but receiving virtually no help from his teammates.
For the second straight game, the Deacon perimeter attack was nowhere to be found, as juniors Tony Rutland and Jerry Braswell combined for an anemic eight-for-27 showing from the floor. The guard duo received precious little help from junior Steven Goolsby and senior Ricky Peral.
Goolsby collected zero points on 0-for-three shooting, while Peral was similarly ineffective. The 6-10 forward rolled an 0-for-four donut in the Dean Dome, while pulling down three rebounds and racking up four fouls.
The Deacons continued a recent trend by starting slowly in Chapel Hill, but were unable to claw their way back from the massive early deficit. The visiting team found themselves trailing the Heels 16-7 with 9:45 remaining in the first half, thanks largely to a torrid-scoring Vince Carter.
Carter put up eight of the Heels' first 16 points, and added two treys soon after to expand the Tar Heel lead to 24-11. UNC center Serge Zwikker, who spent his team's recent game against Georgia Tech suffering from the after effects of a concussion, then hit four straight Tar Heel baskets.
"I don't know what kind of concussion he had, but if you find out, I'd like to give it to a couple of our guys," Odom said.
The home team went to the locker room up 38-18.
The Deacons spent much of the early part of the second half chipping away at the Tar Heel lead.
The guests cut the Heel lead to 50-35 with 11:40 left in the game after two free throws from freshman Loren Woods, and Duncan and Rutland followed with baskets to chisel the Deacon deficit to 39-50.
Braswell promptly chimed in with five points, Rutland added a trey with a little over eight minutes remaining, and suddenly the Deacons were down by seven and Chapel Hill was beginning to feel a lot like College Park.
The Heels squelched the Deacons' comeback hopes, however, with baskets from Ed Cota and Antawn Jamison. A Shammond Williams three pointer put the Tar Heels up 61-49, and the home team was well on its way to an 8-5 record in the ACC.
The loss dropped the Deacons to 9-4 in the conference.