ACC Nation

Story by Patrick Hite
patrick@accnation.com

The most talked about moment following North Carolina’s 113-74 win over Mount St. Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was one of the Tar Heel’s few mistakes.

Marcus Ginyard, after gathering up a loose ball at halfcourt, had nothing between him and the basket except air. And air won. Ginyard tried a dunk, but the ball bounced off the front of the rim and Ginyard ended up on the floor, knowing that it would take some time to live this one down.

“You’ve just got to laugh about it,” said Ginyard, who was more worried about what his mother would say than teammates and coaches. “In a couple of years Coach will have a team and they’ll be in bad spirits one day and he’ll pop that tape in and that will get them all laughing.”

So there. Ginyard did it for the future of Carolina basketball.

As for the present, Carolina basketball looks pretty good after destroying Mount St. Mary’s. Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson both finished with 21 points and Wayne Ellington added 16. Lawson looked as good as he has since returning from a sprained ankle suffered earier this season against Florida State. The point guard, who missed six games with the injury, finished 7-of-9, including two threes, from the field and had four assists for the game. He also seemed to regain his ability to explode to the basket, which had been lacking since his injury.

“My ankle has felt a lot better the last two games,” Lawson said. “During the ACC Tournament I was just trying to push off on it and things like that. It hurt a little bit, but I think that helped it out a lot more for the NCAA Tournament. I feel like I’m playing a lot better. I’m trusting my ankle.”

North Carolina scored 60 first-half points, it’s second best output of the season for an opening half, and finished over 100 points for the first time since 1993 in an NCAA Tournament. Not that that stopped Roy Williams from finding something about his team to criticize.

“The first half I thought they had us on hour heels a little bit, no pun intended,” Williams said of his team’s effort in the first 20 minutes that put the Heels up 60-41. “We weren’t doing a very good job of running back, so they were scoring on the break. We would score then they would score, so it wasn’t a very consistent thing. And we had a little separation right before the half and got it up to 19. Then we came out early in the second half and I think made our first three shots. After that we were just more gifted and talented. That’s what it boils down to.”

Next up for North Carolina is Arkansas, a winner over Indiana Friday night. The second-round game is set for 5:20 Sunday evening.