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--- men_s_basketball:unc_03_23_11 [2011/05/03 20:20]
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+++ men_s_basketball:unc_03_23_11 [2020/12/07 16:49] (current)
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 {{men_s_basketball:teams_marquette.gif|}} ** (11) Marquette 63 {{men_s_basketball:teams_unc.gif|}}  (2) North Carolina 81**
-===== Golden Eagles Join Sweet 16 With Upset Win =====
+===== Golden Eagles Exit NCAAs As Tar Heels Cruise =====
+{{:men_s_basketball:03_25_11_team.jpg?250  }}[[Buzz Williams]] said coming into the Marquette Golden Eagles' matchup with the [[North Carolina]] Tar Heels that his team needed to turn the East Regional semifinal "ugly" to give itself a fighting chance.
+It's doubtful he ever imagined anything like what transpired on Friday night at the Prudential Center.
+Suffering through a first-half drought that saw MU miss 13 straight shots and go scoreless for nearly 9 minutes, the 11th-seeded Golden Eagles wound up being blown out by the second-seeded [[North Carolina]] Tar Heels, 81-63, ending their deepest foray in the [[NCAA Tournament]] in eight years in disappointing fashion.
+While the final margin wasn't nearly as big, the performance was similar in many ways to the drubbing MU suffered at the hands of [[Kansas]] in the Final Four in New Orleans in 2003. North Carolina's Hall of Fame coach, Roy Williams, led the Jayhawks in that one as well, adding a strange twist to another painful end to an MU season.
+The Golden Eagles used a 51.5% performance in the second half to raise their final total to a chilly 36.5%, and make the outcome a little more respectable. The bottom line, though, was the Tar Heels were simply too big and too talented.
+"It kept snowballing in the first half," said [[Jae Crowder]]. "And we couldn't find a way to stop it, unfortunately."
+MU's Williams was more blunt: "I thought in the first half we were pitiful."
+[[Davante Gardner]] led MU (22-15) with 16 points, while [[Jimmy Butler]] added 14, Crowder 11 and [[Junior Cadougan]] 10. Meanwhile [[Darius Johnson-Odom]], who'd enjoyed a great run in the postseason, hit just 2 of 9 shots and finished with only seven points.
+The 7-foot Tyler Zeller had a monster game for [[North Carolina]] (29-7), putting up 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Tar Heels' high-powered attack. Freshman sensation Harrison Barnes added 20 points and nine rebounds and John Henson 14 points and 12 rebounds.
+Things didn't look all that dire early on, as both teams struggled to gain their footing.
+A Crowder putback tied the game at 10-10 with 12 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first half, and it appeared as though the Golden Eagles would be up for the tall task - literally - that would face them the rest of the way.
+Then the roof caved in.
+Starting with a Kendall Marshall layup, [[North Carolina]] embarked on a game-clinching run of epic proportions.
+Putbacks, dunks, three-pointers - you name it, the Tar Heels did it as they put on an offensive clinic in rattling off 19 consecutive points over the next 8:03 to open up a 27-10 lead.
+And as good as they were offensively, they matched the intensity on the other end, giving MU fits with their length, quickness and tenacity. That led to 13 consecutive misses by the Golden Eagles and five turnovers to boot.
+Making the drought even more demoralizing was the Golden Eagles weren't only missing but missing badly from beyond the arc at the free-throw line and even in close. For a team that had played in the same venue earlier in the month, it was somewhat head-scratching.
+"In essence, they were face-guarding Jimmy and DJO, which makes ball reversal hard," Williams said. "I thought we would have a little jitters to start the game. But we always kind of gear it back down and settle in to the groove that we like to dance at. But it's a lot easier to get into a groove when you're making shots."
+A Butler jumper broke the drought, earning a mock cheer from the crowd, but Barnes answered on the other end with a three-pointer from the right wing to keep the [[North Carolina]] onslaught going.
+The Tar Heels wound up scoring 10 of the final 13 points of the half after that to take a 40-18 lead into intermission.
+All told, [[North Carolina]] outscored MU, 32-5, over the final 12:42.
+MU's numbers said it all: 20.0% shooting (6 of 30), 0 of 8 from three-point range, 12 turnovers and no assists.
+"We can't score a lot of points with zero assists and 12 turnovers," said Williams. "Too many possessions we were completely out of whack."
+The 15 points were the fewest scored by the Golden Eagles in the first half of a game since another forgettable [[NCAA Tournament]] loss - that one to [[Michigan State]] in the first round in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 2007.
+The shooting performance was the lowest since MU shot 20.8% in the opening half of a loss to [[Villanova]] in the [[Big East Tournament]] in 2009.
+Things got even worse coming out of the locker room for MU when Barnes scored on a layup, and then Dexter Strickland on a layup and then a breakaway dunk off consecutive turnovers.
+The dunk made it 46-15, and just 1:03 into the second half, Williams called a timeout to try and keep things from getting any more embarrassing.
+From there, MU actually did an admirable job of chipping away at the lead. By the 10:00 mark the Golden Eagles had whittled what had one point been a 32-point North Carolina lead down to 20.
+The Golden Eagles got as close as 14 points on a Cadougan layup with 3:57 remaining, making things interesting, but a three by Leslie McDonald and two free throws by Zeller ended any thoughts of a miraculous comeback down the stretch.
+"Marquette, you have to credit them because they kept digging in and competing and trying to do better themselves," said Roy Williams, whose Tar Heels won their 105th [[NCAA Tournament]] game, most all time.
+MU committed 18 turnovers leading to 29 North Carolina points. The Golden Eagles were also outscored, 46-32, in the paint and surrendered 22 offensive rebounds.
+It was a tough way to go out for MU, considering all the bumps in the road the team endured to get to that point.
+"I hope that we all garner some wisdom from all of this," said Williams. "All of our young guys, I think, will grow from this as people and players, and I hope our staff will do the same."
-{{:men_s_basketball:03_20_11_fulce.jpg?250  }}
 ===== Box Score =====

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