Tar Heels Positively Beat USC

There is a way to make it appear good, to wrap USC’s 99-84 loss to No. 14 North Carolina on Friday night just right and ship it back to Los Angeles as a positive.

Forget what the 16,638 at the Charlotte Coliseum were talking about, and talk up Stais Boseman, USC’s senior guard who scored a career-high 26 points and played all but the final 50 seconds admirably racing after North Carolina’s guard rotation.

Focus on Jaha Wilson’s 24 points off the bench, most coming as he lowered his shoulder and his 6-foot-5 frame and drove in among the Tar Heel trees for one reverse layup after another.

But to do that would be to ignore what the opening game of the Harris Teeter/Pepsi Challenge will be remembered for . . . Serge Zwikker.

That’s right, Serge Zwikker. The goofy 7-foot-2 North Carolina center, he of little skill and lesser coordination, torched the Trojans for 22 points and 20 rebounds, 11 on the offensive end.

“Of all the people we thought could beat us,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said, “he was not one of them.”

USC paid more attention to Antawn Jamison, but he still scored 26 and had 12 rebounds. The Trojans also kept a close watch on Shammond Williams, who managed 14 points in the second half and held Boseman to one field goal in the final six minutes.

But their big nights could not come close to overshadowing Zwikker’s, who registered the first 20-20 game for the Tar Heels since Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak did it against Tulane nearly 20 years ago (Feb. 14, 1976), and that was in quadruple overtime.

“I wouldn’t say I ate them alive,” Zwikker said. “I’m surprised, it kinda snuck up on me. Everybody just sorta left me alone.”

Said Rodrick Rhodes, who had 10 points, making four of 18 shots: “We focused on everybody else, tried to stop their outside shooting and the athletic guys on the inside. I wouldn’t say [Zwikker] surprised us, but he hurt us.”

It hurt the Trojans that 6-11 David Crouse played like he was 6-5. He had only two points and played only four minutes in the second half as Bibby went with Rhodes, Wilson and Gary Williams, none taller than 6-8, up front.

For the first half, and parts of the second, USC (2-1) puffed out its chest and played with North Carolina (4-1). There was Williams sliding in a sweet layup to give USC a 23-20 lead with 9:24 left in the first half.

And with six minutes remaining in the game, Boseman broke free for a layup, cutting what had once been a 15-point North Carolina lead to nine.

“We got within nine there and then came down twice and took three-pointers and that was not what we needed,” Bibby said. “I thought we had a chance to cut the lead to eight or six but took some wild shots.”

When USC got close, the Tar Heels went to Jamison, or Zwikker followed up a shot with an easy tap-in, as he did at 5:30 to push North Carolina’s lead back 13.

USC, with little help from the bench beyond Wilson, got tired and ragged at the end. As a result, the Trojans will play North Carolina Charlotte, which lost to South Carolina, 75-60, in today’s consolation game, while the Tar Heels and Gamecocks meet in the final.

“Defensively, we couldn’t stop them,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said. “Their quickness was really something, and Stais had a great game. I guess he was due.”