THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240588
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ALA. LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
It was early in the second half when North Carolina's Rasheed Wallace took flight, hauled in an offensive rebound and slammed the ball through the net.
Just as a roar of approval began emerging from the throats of a large Tar Heel fan contingent in the Birmingham Civic Center, it was choked back and became a mournful groan.
Wallace was hopping down the court, his face twisted in pain, and his hand reaching for his left ankle.
That was the biggest scare North Carolina had Thursday night, and it was only momentary.
After leaving the game briefly to massage his aching ankle - the same one he badly sprained two weeks ago - Wallace returned and continued to lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA Southeast Regional championship game with a 74-64 victory over Georgetown.
Limited to only two points in the first half by Georgetown's collapsing defense, the 6-foot-11 Wallace became the decisive force in keeping Carolina in the race for the national championship.
The sophomore center finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots.
Donald Williams, who helped to free up Wallace with outside shooting, added 20 points and Jerry Stackhouse had 12.
Wallace's mammoth performance became necessary, too, when Georgetown's outstanding freshman, Allen Iverson from Hampton, also came to life in the second half.
Iverson, 0-for-6 in the first half, finished with 24 points to prevent the Tar Heels from turning the game into a rout.
``I took a couple of bad shots in the first half, but my teammates kept going to me,'' Iverson said.
``I was just trying to do all I could in the second half to help us win. I didn't want to have another bad half and leave my teammates hanging.''
He didn't.
Indeed, the Hoyas were only seven points down after a 3-pointer by Iverson with 4:17 left.
Neither he nor Georgetown got another goal in the next three minutes, though, as North Carolina put the victory away.
While North Carolina was feeling easier about Wallace's ankle, which he had on ice after the game, there was concern about starting guard Jeff McInnis, who reaggravated an old groin injury in the first half.
``I am in a lot of pain right now,'' McInnis said. ``I'll keep ice on it and hope it feels better before Saturday.''
While McInnis is not as spectacular as the slam-dunking Wallace, he plays a big role for the Tar Heels, as evidenced by his defense on Iverson in the first half.
``I probably shouldn't have played him the second half, but he wanted to go back out there,'' North Carolina coach Dean Smith said.
With Iverson shut out in the first half, Georgetown's only offensive force was center Othella Harrington with 14 points.
Meanwhile, North Carolina had the outside guns to blast apart Georgetown's defensive strategy of denying the ball to Wallace.
During a 14-0 run midway through the first half, the Heels drilled four straight 3-pointers for a 23-7 lead.
``When we started putting pressure on them outside, they went inside,'' Georgetown coach John Thompson said.
When someone prefaced a question by telling Thompson that Wallace had a great second half, the coach shot back, ``No s---!''
But, he was smiling when he said it.
``He did hurt us,'' Thompson said. ``When we started defending them on the perimeter, they starting throwing the ball over us to Wallace, and he has the skill to do a lot of things.''
Wallace said he feared the worst when he felt pain while descending from his high-flying dunk early in the second half.
``But even as I went to the bench to check it out, I knew I was going to finish the game. The adrenalin was running and that blocks out a lot of the pain.''
Wallace said he probably would not know if he had done further damage to the ankle until Friday.
``But it felt good during the game, and I could do a lot of things I wasn't able to do the last two weeks.'' by CNB