Heels win and worry

Already without Hansbrough, UNC faces losing Zeller, too

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina blew out Kentucky 77-58 with one Tyler sitting on the bench in street clothes Tuesday night.

Now, the top-ranked Tar Heels might have to worry about playing without another.

With 1:26 left, freshman Tyler Zeller -- who started his second straight basketball game in place of All-America Tyler Hansbrough, who is still resting a "stress reaction" in his right shin --injured his left wrist on a missed breakaway dunk.

He was fouled in transition by Wildcats forward Ramon Harris, came down hard on his left hand, eventually walked off the court alongside a trainer and was taken to a hospital for tests.

"It doesn't look good; it doesn't give us a good feeling right now," UNC coach Roy Williams said.

Asked for more clarification, Williams said: "I'm not a doctor ... but when I'm over there with him, he really felt a lot of pain. It was right on his wrist ... he came down, that's the first thing that hit the floor.

"And let's get something straight: I think it was an aggressive play by their youngster [Harris] -- he was trying to block the shot. It was a hard foul, but I don't think it was a dirty foul."

A team spokesman said there would not be an update on Zeller's health until today at the earliest.

With starting forward Marcus Ginyard also still sidelined after foot surgery, Zeller's injury cast a pall on what was an otherwise dominating game by the Tar Heels (2-0), who got a career-high 20 points from junior Deon Thompson and beat the Wildcats (0-2) for the fifth straight time.

UNC commanded so overwhelmingly from the outset that Williams had to shush the student section from chanting "VMI! VMI!" -- the team that upset Kentucky in the Wildcats' season-opener -- barely 5 1/2 minutes into the game.

The big reason for Carolina's early onslaught was Thompson, who did most of his damage in the first half.

He had six points, four rebounds and a block in the opening 11-2 run that had Kentucky scrambling for a timeout.

A baseline jumper, then a dunk by Thompson gave UNC a 19-4 lead with 13 minutes left.

Later, another jam by Thompson made it 33-19.

Meanwhile, Wildcats All America candidate Patrick Patterson, who scored just eight points on four shots during the loss to VMI, had a hard time getting the ball again early -- mostly because his teammates had a hard time holding onto it.

Guarded mostly by Zeller and fellow freshman Ed Davis, Patterson eventually finished with 19 points. But he didn't score his first bucket until 12:13 remained in the first half. That cut Kentucky's deficit to 19-6, and by then the Wildcats already had eight turnovers.

"You can't make the mistakes that we made -- like picking the dribble up, not being strong with the ball, getting destroyed on the offensive ball," said Kentucky's Billy Gillispie, who is coaching at a school that has lost its first two games of the season just two other times since 1926.

UNC led 41-25 at halftime.

Then Thompson finally set a personal best with 4:30 left, when he put back a Ty Lawson miss to make it 68-51. He also finished with nine rebounds -- a good sign because he could play an every bigger role if Zeller is sidelined any amount of time.

"Coach emphasized that the big guys have to step up because [Hansbrough is] our best scorer and our leading rebounder ... and Deon's done a good job,'' said shooting guard Wayne Ellington, who chipped in 16 points.

If Zeller is sidelined, Thompson said that "Ed Davis has been productive when he's been in there, and I'm pretty sure he'll help us."

And there's still they hope that Hansbrough will be back sooner rather than later.