Lawson lifts UNC Past ArchrivalBy Megan Crotty -- Staff Writer
Posted: 02/12/09 - 10:18:13 pm CST
DURHAM — All eyes may have been on North Carolina forward and Atlantic Coast Conference leading scorer Tyler Hansbrough Wednesday night as the Tar Heels took on archrival Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The senior was, after all, looking to stay perfect against the Tar Heels’ hated rival.
What those eyes forgot was North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson.
The junior scored 21 of his season-high 25 points in the second half, leading the No. 3 Tar Heels’ rally past the No. 6 Blue Devils for a 101-87 win.
It was North Carolina’s first 100-point performance in the 8-mile, Tobacco Road rivalry since the Tar Heels’ 102-100 double-overtime win in 1995. It also made North Carolina the first visiting squad to beat Duke at Cameron since the Tar Heels did it last March.
“We had to regroup,” said Lawson, whose squad’s win meant the ACC lead and snapped Duke’s 14-game home winning streak. “We liked being under the radar. We didn’t mind. We want to be the team everyone is talking about in March and April, not February.
“In the second half, Coach (Williams) let me drive the ball. When they switched on the ball screens, I had (Kyle) Singler and (Lance) Thomas on me, so I could get by them easily. Also, we were setting a lot of ball screens for me.”
Lawson is now averaging 15.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game for the Tar Heels, and has 156 assists and 52 steals to lead the team.
“He’s going to play basketball for a long time,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s just really strong, and he’s strong with the ball. Even when you’re trying to corral him, he keeps the ball so low so he’s strong low. A lot of people aren’t strong low. It was almost impossible for us to defend him on every exchange, and he gets it down there so fast that even if you try to change a defense or whatever, he beats your defense down. He’s a great weapon, because he makes other weapons better.”
With 71/2 minutes to play, Lawson gave North Carolina (8-2, 22-2) the separation it needed, scoring nine of the Tar Heels’ 14 straight points late in the fourth quarter — four on back-to-back layups. Lawson’s three-point play with 3:42 to play, gave North Carolina an 88-71 lead.
“We just had to get more spacing and better movement,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. “On the board we showed them two different scenarios where we had two post players standing two feet from each other and both of them in the lane. When a team is pressing you in a halfcourt pressure defense like we try to play as well, you’ve got to have better spacing. Duke does a great job of that and that’s the reason in the first half they were blowing right by us for layups and we didn’t have anybody in the help spot. So we got better spacing in the second half. I think Ty [Lawson] was a little more patient with what he was trying to do as well.”
Hansbrough finished with 17 points, while Danny Green and Wayne Ellington added 15 apiece. Deon Thompson chipped in 12. Hansbrough and teammate Danny Green joined former Wake Forest stars Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue as the only players to beat Mike Krzyzewski four straight times at Cameron. There have been only five Tar Heels who played in four wins at Cameron — Mitch Kupchak, John Kuester, Walter Davis, Green and Hansbrough.
The Tar Heels trailed 52-44 at the half, but a Hansbrough dunk off a Lawson feed tied the game at 50-all with just under 15 minutes to play.
Three minutes later, Lawson sank two free throws to give North Carolina its first lead since there were 61/2 minutes left in the first quarter. Duke answered with a Lance Thomas shot, but Ellington’s 3-pointer gave the Tar Heels a 67-65 lead with 11 minutes to play — one they would never relinquish thanks to Lawson’s quick feet.
“He was patient until he saw an opening and then he tried to take it,” Williams said. “I think that was it. He still had five turnovers, which he usually doesn’t do that. I thought one of them was a foul at the end, but they’re good defensively. You’re not going to get the open looks. I think for us we hoped we would get better defensively. We didn’t show it in the first half, but we were better in the second half.”
Things didn’t look so good for the Tar Heels in the first half. The Blue Devils shot 62 percent from the floor, ending the half with a 26-10 run, making it the first time the Tar Heels allowed a team to score 50 points in a half since December. North Carolina’s top three players — Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington were a combined 3-for-12 from the field.
That changed a bit in the second half.
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mcrotty@courier-tribune.com
