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COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : North Carolina Surges, 71-51 : East Regional: Tar Heels go on 16-0 run after 16th-seeded Liberty leads with 10 minutes to play.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Not even Jerry Falwell’s pregame pleas for divine intervention--and Lord knows, he tried--could save Liberty University from a 71-51 loss to North Carolina at the NCAA East Regional on Friday.

Falwell, chancellor and founder of the fundamentalist Christian school, delivered the team prayer, but there are limitations. Burning bushes . . . the Red Sea parts . . . plagues are ordered--sure, those things happen. But a No. 16-seed like Liberty beating the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels? Never.

“We’ve never faced 10 All-Americans before,” said Liberty guard Matt Hildebrand, who led all scorers with 20 points. “There’s probably more than that. I apologize to those I missed.”

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Actually, Hildebrand and the Flames (18-12) don’t need to apologize for a thing. They led by four points with 15:10 remaining and by one with 10 minutes left.

“No, we weren’t surprised,” Liberty forward Jody Chapman said.

Hildebrand, sitting nearby, nearly fell off his chair.

“I was a little surprised, to tell the truth,” he said.

This was North Carolina’s 20th consecutive appearance in the tournament, an NCAA record. It was Liberty’s first, though you wouldn’t have known until midway through the second half.

As snow fell outside, the Tar Heels (28-6) soon discovered that Liberty was serious. The first time Eric Montross, North Carolina’s seven-foot center, went up for an easy layup, 6-10 Peter Aluma stuffed the shot into Montross’ crewcut. Aluma later rejected another shot by 6-10 Rasheed Wallace, merely the most prized freshman starter in the country.

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“Their first time in the NCAAs, I thought they might have a little bit of jitters,” said Montross, who finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for the defending national champions.

The Tar Heels’ biggest lead of the first half was only six points, about a dozen points fewer than expected. Then came the barrage of dunks and three-pointers by Chapman and Hildebrand. Suddenly the Flames were ahead, 40-36, with 15:10 to go and by 47-46 with 10 minutes left.

Sitting near courtside, his evangelical smile seemingly frozen in time, was Falwell. The school that requires its male students to wear ties to class, its female students to wear skirts, allows no alcohol on campus, has no co-ed dorms and holds mandatory thrice-weekly chapel services, was putting the fear of somebody into the Tar Heels.

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“I looked up with 10 minutes to go and we were ahead in the game,” Hildebrand said. “I was pretty excited.”

Of course, that was before North Carolina Coach Dean Smith called for the Tar Heels to switch to a zone extended to the perimeter, which made it harder for Hildebrand and Chapman to make three-pointers. As the Flames began to miss from outside, Montross and Wallace started to assert themselves and the Tar Heels went on a 16-0 run.

“God loves us all,” Smith said. “You ask what I was thinking. I don’t believe in a vengeful God.”

The Tar Heels will play ninth-seeded Boston College on Sunday.

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