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Fantastic freshmen: Wake Forest gets spark from Harris, Stewart in 82-69 win against UNC
AP Photo
Wake Forest guard Ishmael Smith (10) moves the ball around North Carolina forward David Wear (34)
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Published: January 21, 2010
CHAPEL HILL - All that freshmen C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart of Wake Forest know of North Carolina's Smith Center is that it's big, it's blue and it's a fun place to spend an evening playing basketball.
"I can say that now," Stewart said. "Before I came in, I was nervous."
There proved to be nothing to be nervous about last night once Harris and Stewart found the range from outside in time to power a surprisingly easy 82-69 victory over the struggling North Carolina in front of a less-than-rambunctious crowd of 20,235. Both hit three 3-pointers in the second half as the Deacons made seven of eight to build an 18-point lead that was never in jeopardy.
Harris finished with 20 points, tying point guard Ish Smith for game high, and Stewart contributed 11 to help the Deacons rebound from Sunday's loss at Duke and improve to 13-4 and 3-2 in the ACC. The Tar Heels, playing without sophomore Ed Davis, tumbled to 12-7 and 1-3 with their third straight loss and fourth in five games. Davis, UNC's leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, missed the game with a sprained ankle.
"Every team goes through injuries and it's one thing you've got to play through," senior Chas McFarland of Wake Forest said. "Carolina's got a ton of talented players, no matter which way you look at it."
North Carolina still trailed only 36-33 at halftime after converting 10 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points, but the Deacons pulled away once they began limiting the Tar Heels to one shot. Wake Forest won the battle of the rebounds 42-38, with Al-Farouq Aminu grabbing 11 and McFarland 10 to go with four blocks.
The Deacons held the Tar Heels to 36 percent and 23 percent (6 for 26) from 3-point range. Will Graves led UNC with 16 points. Deon Thompson and Travis Wear scored 13 each.
"We were making them miss shots," McFarland said. "We knew what we had to do to separate us from them, if we boxed them out and eliminated those second shots."
The Deacons began putting the Tar Heels away after the first media timeout of the second half when Harris took an inbound pass from Smith and drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 47-39 lead. But the stretch that sent UNC reeling came around the second media timeout of the half when Stewart made back-to-back-to-back 3-point attempts over three possessions, all in the span of 1 minute and 27 seconds.
"As the game went on, I felt the shooters got more confidence," McFarland said. "Ari pulled up for one that was deep.
"That's why I love Ari."
Stewart helped extend the lead to 58-45 with 10½ minutes remaining.
"They didn't guard us on the 3-point line," Stewart said. "They were just easy buckets for us."
Any UNC hopes for a comeback were all but dashed with 8 minutes left when Harris made consecutive 3-point attempts from the left wing for a 68-53 lead. Smith said that Stewart and Harris were only doing what he had seen them do many times before.
"You can say they're freshmen," Smith said. "I don't believe in that.
"If you can play, you can play."
Wake Forest shot 50 percent from the floor and 56 percent from 3-point range.
Stewart said that the old conceptions about the Wake Forest's shooting ability don't apply any longer, even though the Deacons entered the game ranked 10th in the ACC in field-goal percentage and 11th in 3-point percentage.
"We work on our shot every day, C.J. and I, before practice, after practice," Stewart said. "We're best friends. We work on our shot every day all day.... We're going to make shots. All that ‘Wake can't shoot,' -- we can shoot now. We'll be able to knock down shots."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts
Aminu 31 5-10 3-4 6-11 1 3 13
McFarland 30 1-3 3-5 1-10 1 4 5
Williams 31 2-4 0-0 0-3 4 3 4
Harris 33 6-11 4-5 0-1 0 3 20
Smith 37 9-17 1-2 0-7 6 1 20
Stewart 14 4-9 0-0 1-2 0 0 11
Woods 13 2-3 2-2 2-2 0 2 6
Weaver 6 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 0
Clark 4 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 3
Walker 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Godwin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 200 30-60 13-18 14-42 12 17 82
Percentages: FG .500, FT .722; 3-Point Goals: 9-16, .563 (Harris 4-7, Stewart 3-4, Smith 1-2, Clark 1-2, Williams 0-1); Team Rebounds: 4; Blocked Shots: 7 (McFarland 4, Harris, Woods, Weaver); Turnovers: 12 (Smith 4, Aminu 3, McFarland 3, Stewart, Williams); Steals: 6 (Aminu 2, Stewart 2, Harris, Clark).
UNC Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts
TWear 25 6-11 1-2 3-6 1 2 13
Thompson 31 5-10 3-4 2-3 0 2 13
Graves 33 5-13 4-4 2-8 1 2 16
Ginyard 25 2-9 2-2 3-4 4 2 7
Drew II 26 3-8 0-0 2-5 6 4 8
Strickland 18 1-7 0-0 0-1 2 1 2
DWear 18 3-7 0-1 2-4 0 1 6
Henson 9 0-0 1-2 1-1 1 3 1
McDonald 14 1-6 0-0 0-2 2 1 3
Watts 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 200 26-71 11-15 19-38 17 18 69
Percentages: FG .366, FT .733; 3-Point Goals: 6-26, .231 (Drew II 2-6, Graves 2-8, Ginyard 1-3, McDonald 1-4, D.Wear 0-1, T.Wear 0-1, Strickland 0-3); Team Rebounds: 4; Blocked Shots: 4 (Ginyard, D.Wear, Thompson, Graves); Turnovers: 9 (Drew II 4, Henson 2, Thompson, D.Wear, Graves); Steals: 6 (Thompson 2, Henson 2, Strickland, Ginyard).
Wake Forest 36 46 -- 82
North Carolina 33 36 -- 69
A--20,235
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