NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : MIDWEST AND EAST REGIONALS : Arkansas Advances by Threes : Midwest Regional: Razorback bombs blow away North Carolina.

For three quarters of the game, Arkansas appeared ready to fall into the same trap that allowed North Carolina to knock Oklahoma out of the NCAA tournament. A plow horse pace, score in the 50s, the lead going back and forth.

But the Razorbacks never thought it could happen to them.

“We’re kind of like a time bomb,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said later. “Things go right, we kind of blow up.”

Indeed, just when it seemed North Carolina might pull another tournament stunner, the Razorbacks started bombing. In fewer than three minutes, point guard Lee Mayberry buried three three-point shots, and forward Todd Day threw in another to push the Razorbacks to a 96-73 victory Thursday night and into the Midwest Regional final against Southwest Conference rival Texas.

Perhaps more than anything else, Arkansas, seeded No. 4 in the Midwest, forged its victory with its depth. The Razorbacks go nine deep with talented players, and the numbers were too much for North Carolina (21-13), seeded eighth.

When sophomores Day and Mayberry got into first-half foul trouble, forward Lenzie Howell picked up the slack, scoring 15 points in the first 20 minutes and finishing with 25.

With starting center Mario Credit also hampered by fouls, his backup, 6-foot-9, 270-pound sophomore Oliver Miller, contributed 19 points, 15 in the second half.

North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said: “You’ll see a lot of those guys some day in the NBA.”

For the time being, however, the Razorbacks (29-4) move into Saturday’s regional final against Texas, which defeated Xavier, 102-89.

Arkansas beat the Longhorns twice during the regular season.

“We know exactly what Texas does,” Howell said. “They have three great guards. We know how to play them well because we’ve played them so many times.”

Even with senior swingman Kevin Madden on the bench because of the knee injury he suffered earlier in the week in practice, the Tar Heels were able to stay with Arkansas early. In the first half, North Carolina built a 20-13 rebounding advantage over the smaller Razorbacks and trailed by five points at the intermission.

Day, Arkansas’ leading scorer, hit two three-pointers in the first 3:20 as his team took a seven-point lead. But he picked up his third foul less than two minutes later and spent the rest of the half on the bench. Mayberry wasn’t much better, scoring eight points before getting his third foul with 2:19 left.

Into the breach stepped Howell, a 6-5 senior from Dallas who has fought off personal problems to become a force for the Razorbacks in the tournament. He left the team at one point during the regular season because his father had lapsed into a coma. Howell was battling an eye infection last week.

But he scored 23 points in Arkansas’ second-round victory over Dayton and worked inside and out for his 25 against North Carolina.

“It was just like that Dayton game, when I had (16 points in the) first half and had to keep us in the game,” he said.

Said Richardson: “Lenzie Howell kept us right there until Lee and Todd put their things together.”

North Carolina opened the second half with an 11-3 run to lead by three with 16:51 left. With 10:44 left, the game was tied, 54-54, when the bomb went off.

Actually, Richardson went off--in Mayberry’s face--first.

“We had a timeout right before that,” Richardson said. “I don’t remember the exact time. But I jumped on Lee in the huddle because he was passing up the three-point shot.”

Mayberry’s first three-pointer brought the Razorback crowd into the game for the first time. George Lynch made one of two free throws for Carolina, and then Mayberry buried another three-pointer. Day forced a turnover and followed with his three-pointer. After Carolina’s Rick Fox missed a three-point try, Mayberry struck again.

“They did get in foul trouble early,” Smith said, “but that streak of three-point shots was hard to overcome.”

Fox’s three-pointer brought the Tar Heels to within seven with 7:30 remaining, but they couldn’t get any closer as the Razorbacks pushed the ball inside to Miller down the stretch.