UNC rallies for win at Boston College after Williams collapses and leaves game

Marcus Paige wasn’t all that worried when he watched Roy Williams collapse for a moment during the second half of a game at Boston College because Paige had seen it before and was familiar with Williams’ bouts with vertigo.

Yet this was something different because Williams, the North Carolina coach, had never left a game before because of it. And that’s where the motivation came in, Paige said – when he and his teammates looked over to the sideline and saw that their head coach wasn’t sitting there.

“We were getting our butt kicked,” Paige said. “But that kind of lit a fire under us.”

With Williams back in the locker room during the final 14 1/2 minutes Tuesday night, the ninth-ranked Tar Heels rallied for a 68-65 victory over the Eagles, whose Eli Carter missed a half-court heave as time expired, leaving UNC with a dramatic win under dramatic circumstances.

Things weren’t going all that well for UNC during the first 25 minutes. The Tar Heels hadn’t exactly responded to Williams’ changes to the starting lineup – he inserted Theo Pinson, Isaiah Hicks and Joel James in place of Justin Jackson, Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks – and UNC was losing.

The Tar Heels appeared flat and sluggish against Boston College, which has by every measure been the ACC’s worst team. Before Tuesday night, the Eagles had lost all 10 of their conference games by double-digits. They also hadn’t led an ACC game at halftime.

Yet there they were on Tuesday at the Conte Forum, leading the Tar Heels 37-31 at halftime. Boston College’s lead grew to nine points twice early in the second half, and it led 49-44 when a media timeout came with 14 minutes, 35 seconds remaining.

That’s when Williams approached an official to discuss a no-call. Williams thought Hicks had been fouled moments earlier, and there was no whistle. Displeased with what he heard, Williams turned back around and made his move to his team’s bench.

When he arrived, he collapsed and fell into a seated position in front of it. Doug Halverson, the team’s head trainer, approached Williams and then helped him to his feet. Williams, who had suffered a vertigo attack, walked off the court under his own power but with Halverson by his side, guiding him.

Williams didn’t return and Steve Robinson, his longtime assistant, took over for the rest of the game.

“We certainly rallied around the fact that coach was down,” Robinson said. “And you’ve got to have somebody to just kind of pick us up, and I think that’s what our team did.”

UNC’s rally didn’t happen immediately. Boston College’s lead grew to eight with a little more than nine minutes remaining before the Tar Heels began their comeback. And yet, still, they didn’t take their first lead until Pinson made two free throws with under four minutes remaining. The second of those put UNC ahead 57-56.

The Eagles regained the lead on a 3-pointer from Eli Carter before Paige gave UNC the lead for good with a 3 with 1:47 remaining. Boston College made it a one-point game with five seconds left, but Paige, who finished with 11 points, made two free throws before Carter missed his heave as time expired.

And that’s how it UNC escaped with a victory that was memorable both for how it came and because of the circumstances that surrounded it, with Williams in the locker room getting updates on his team.

Paige said he was familiar with Williams’ vertigo and had seen his coach suffer an attack before. But not like this – not during a game.

“I didn’t know how long it was going to take him to recover, because he’s only had one or two since I’ve been here,” Paige said. “But like I said, coach Rob – he was great. He was the rock that held us together in that moment, just putting confidence in the team.”

Jackson, a sophomore forward, led UNC with 20 points. He was one of the team’s usual starters who began the game on the bench.

Williams told his team after its loss Saturday at Notre Dame that he’d be making changes to the starting lineup. He was unhappy after that game with Johnson and Meeks, especially, and Jackson had been struggling, too, entering Tuesday night.

“He just wants us to play harder,” said Johnson, who finished with nine points. “Just emphasize that we need to play a little harder here and there. … He wants us to play better. He wants to motivate us somehow and that’s probably one of the ways he’s tried.”

Johnson said the message Williams sent by changing the lineup “got through.” Yet it wasn’t until after Williams left the game amid a scary moment that the Tar Heels rallied and found their way, finally.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 10:10 PM with the headline "UNC rallies for win at Boston College after Williams collapses and leaves game."