Heels crumble again

UNC can't close it out as Terps rally

COLLEGE PARK, MD. -- North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough scrambled to the floor Sunday night -- grasping, reaching, trying to gain control of a final, elusive offensive rebound.

But the fact that Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez instead came up with the ball as time ran out at the Comcast Center was a fitting end for fifth-ranked UNC's 89-87 loss.

Leading by a dozen points with 7:13 left, the Tar Heels (24-5, 10-4 ACC) again failed to show the killer instinct necessary to win down the stretch of games -- and perhaps down the stretch of the season.

They allowed the Terrapins to shoot 64.3 percent in the second half. They watched as guard D.J. Strawberry poured in a career-high 27 points.

And maybe most telling: They were outrebounded 46-33 in a statistic that requires as much effort as skill.

"It just came down to they wanted it more, I guess,'' said point guard Bobby Frasor, repeating a refrain that has been a common strain after each of Carolina's five losses. "They gutted it out, and they got it."

As a result, Carolina fell into a three-way tie for first place in the ACC; a victory would have put them in the driver's seat to a top seed in the league tournament.

"We had another breakdown; we keep hitting the same wall,'' sophomore Marcus Ginyard said. "It's making me a little nervous, honestly. I don't think we are showing what we need to be showing right now to achieve our goals."

This time around, with 56 seconds left, UNC's comfy dozen-point cushion turned into an 89-84 deficit, courtesy of nine points from Mike Jones (18 points).

Carolina freshman Wayne Ellington (17 points) buried a 3-pointer to cut it to 89-87. But with 3.5 seconds left -- after UNC freshman Brandan Wright was fouled in the lane by Strawberry. Wright, a 56 percent free-throw shooter, unintentionally missed the first before intentionally missing the second.

The ball went off the rim in the opposite direction than expected, but still, "I thought I had that, my hands were on it,'' said Hansbrough, who led the Tar Heels with 22 points. "As a matter of fact, I thought I was going to have a chance to put it back in. But it's real physical down there, so they just knocked the ball loose, and things just happened."

In the end, the Tar Heels were outrebounded by three on the offensive boards, and their top defensive rebounder was 5-foot-11 point guard Ty Lawson -- a telling stat for the second-best rebounding team in the nation.

"They just physically beat us up; they were more aggressive to it, and I'm not talking about anything beyond the rules; they went after the basketball harder than we did,'' said Roy Williams, who still needs another victory to mark 100 wins as head coach at his alma mater.

Meanwhile, the comeback marked the fifth straight victory for Maryland (22-7, 8-6), which has risen from tournament bubble to NCAA certainty over the past two weeks. Fans rushed the floor to celebrate the Terrapins' first victory over UNC since January 2004.

"Beating North Carolina, a top-five team at home, showed the toughness that we have,'' Strawberry said.

And the toughness the Tar Heels must gain. Soon. Or else.

"We just can't crumble whenever a game gets tight,'' Hansbrough said.

Added Frasor: "Everyone just has to realize this is it. Coming down to crunch time, we decide our fate from here on out."