Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 28, 1993                   TAG: 9303280158
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.                                 LENGTH: Medium

UNC'S LYNCH NOT READY TO GO HOME

After routing its first two opponents in the NCAA Tournament, heavily favored North Carolina had run into an Arkansas basketball team that wouldn't go away.

"I saw my whole career flash in front of me [in] the last two minutes," said Lynch, a 6-foot-8 senior from Roanoke, Va. "I just wanted to make sure, if there was any chance possible, I was going to make a big play."

Try two big plays, both in the final minute.

It was Lynch's pass to Donald Williams on a back-door play that put North Carolina ahead 77-74 with 42.7 seconds left. Then, Lynch stepped in front of Robert Shepherd and forced a traveling violation with 21.5 seconds on the clock.

"Each game could be my last game," said Lynch, who had a team-high 23 points and 10 rebounds as the Tar Heels prevailed 80-74. "I have to keep that in mind. I easily could be going home on the next trip."

Lynch will be going home after the East Region championship game today at the Meadowlands, but it may be a mere stopover on the way to New Orleans if Carolina (31-4) can get past Cincinnati (27-4) in the East Region final at 1:30 p.m.

Lynch played on a Final Four team when he was a sophomore, which was one of the images that went through his mind in the closing moments against Arkansas.

"The Final Four . . . losing an ACC Tournament this year . . . winning the ACC Tournament last year," Lynch said. "All that was going through my mind in the last couple of minutes.

"Any time I had a chance to go to the basket, I was going. Any time I had a chance to box out, I was going to do it. All those things coach [Dean] Smith taught us were going to come out on the floor."

The flashbacks weren't anything that Smith encouraged, however.

"There's a lot of pressure on these seniors," Smith said. "I want them to know real tragedy isn't losing a game. But that kind of helped him, didn't it?

"Maybe I ought to tell him to tell the other guys the same thing. What is it they say in that one film? `I'll have what he's having.' "

Apparently, Smith was able to take time out from game tapes to see "When Harry Met Sally."

Lynch, a first-team All-ACC selection not known as a sentimental guy, said the late-game reminiscence Friday night was a first.

"That's because it was so close," he said. "Earlier in the tournament everything was so easy for us. [In the first two rounds] against East Carolina and Rhode Island, we were enjoying ourselves. It helped us wake up."

Lynch entered postseason play with renewed inspiration after an ACC Tournament in which he scored eight points in UNC's 77-75 loss to Georgia Tech in the championship game.

"During the ACC Tournament, teams were giving me shots they were giving me all year and I was trying to make those shots," Lynch said. "I tried to make the shots instead of making a couple more passes and letting the offense come to me."

Arkansas was content to let Lynch work the offensive boards, where he is most dangerous.

"[Friday] night I pretty much got everything on rebounds," said Lynch, who recently move into second place on Carolina's all-time rebounding list behind Sam Perkins.

"Non-conference teams may hear about you, but they don't really know how you play. A lot of times against Arkansas there was nobody boxing me out," he said.

Lynch was rewarded with his 14th "double-double" of the season and the 31st of his career.

"I had a bad ACC Tournament because I tried to do too much," Lynch said. "This time I was a little more relaxed. Arkansas helped that because they press a lot and I'm more comfortable in an up-tempo game."

Lynch, on schedule to receive his degree in May, is playing in a regional final for only the second time. The Tar Heels reached the Final Four in 1991 - their best chance at an NCAA title, in Lynch's mind, until this year.

That year, the Tar Heels lost in the national semifinals, then had to watch as their closest rival, Duke, won back-to-back national championships.

"With Duke being next door, you see the signs and you see the T-shirts, and it gets under your skin a little," Lynch said, "but mostly it gives you the drive to want more for yourself."