NCAA East Regional Second Round : North Carolina Wins, Gets Rematch With Irish

Add Michigan Coach Bill Frieder to the growing list of people who think No. 2 North Carolina has the talent, depth and coaching to win the NCAA championship.

“They’re a whale of a team,” Frieder said Saturday after the Tar Heels advanced to the East Regional semifinals with a 109-97 victory over Frieder’s Wolverines. “I think they’ll do very well from here on out.”

On Thursday, the Tar Heels (31-3) will play Notre Dame (24-7) in the regional semifinals at East Rutherford, N.J. Notre Dame beat Texas Christian, 58-57, Saturday. The Irish upset North Carolina last month at South Bend, Ind.

North Carolina, which has won 13 of its last 14 games, is the only school in the nation to advance to the final 16 in each of the past seven seasons.

“Dean Smith is the No. 1 guy in America,” Frieder said of the Tar Heel coach. “There are never any droughts. Year after year, he does a masterful job.”

Freshman J.R. Reid scored 15 of his 27 points in the decisive first half as the Tar Heels built a 17-point lead and went on to break the 100-point barrier for the second straight game.

Senior forward Joe Wolf hurt his ankle in practice Friday, but that hardly worried the Tar Heels, who have more than enough depth to cover for him.

“We’ve played without a lot of people (lost to injury) this year,” said North Carolina guard Kenny Smith, who missed part of the season. “Now if someone goes down there’s not the shock of an adjustment period.”

Smith scored 22 points, and Jeff Lebo added 16 for the Tar Heels.

“They’re sound at every position,” Frieder said. “You can’t key on any guy. You tighten up on J.R., and Kenny Smith will kill you with three-pointers.”

North Carolina scored the first 12 points of the game, then used a 32-10 run later in the half to take a 23-point lead.

Michigan (20-12) got to within six points but no closer.

Gary Grant had 24 points for the Wolverines. Glenn Rice added 22 and Antoine Joubert had 20.

Notre Dame 58, Texas Christian 57--David Rivers sank the front free throw of a one-and-one with four seconds left to get the 18th-ranked Irish past the 19th-ranked Horned Frogs.

“We’ve lost games this way, now we win one this way,” Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said.

Rivers, who had 24 points, plagued the Horned Frogs (24-7) with three-point shooting in the first half, hitting 4 of 6. He cooled off in the second half, but Scott Hicks picked up the pace with two crucial three-pointers, the second of which tied the score, 53-53 with 3:02 left.

The score was tied twice more before TCU’s Norman Anderson missed a layup with 12 seconds left. Mark Stevenson rebounded and passed to Rivers, who was fouled by Jamie Dixon along the right sideline.

“He (Dixon) just bumped me with the hip as I tried to go by him,” Rivers said. “There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that it was a foul. I saw how much room I had to work with, and I was just trying to penetrate and go around him.”

Said TCU Coach Jim Killingsworth: “There isn’t anything that we can change. You can talk about all kinds of calls during a ballgame. I think we played well. It was just unfortunate we got a bad break at the end and that’s about all there is to it.”

Rivers hit the first free throw to break a 57-57 tie, but the second shot rimmed out. Larry Richard grabbed the rebound for TCU, but Hicks intercepted the pass downcourt to preserve the victory for Notre Dame.