North Carolina powered its way back to the College World Series finals. After hitting just one home run in their first 13 postseason games, the Tar Heels lit up Rice for four long balls in a 7-4 victory Thursday night.
Luke Putkonen gave North Carolina the quality start it had been longing for, combining on a three-hitter to lead the Tar Heels over Louisville 3-1 Tuesday in a College World Series elimination game.
Rice is unbeaten after two College World Series games for the second straight year. The Owls say they're a very different team this time around.
North Carolina is fast becoming expert at comebacks. The Tar Heels spotted Mississippi State a four-run lead Friday night before cobbling together a six-run sixth inning to win 8-5 in the College World Series.
Ivory Latta snatched the rebound and immediately looked at the clock. Only 10 seconds left. Just 10 seconds until she was going back to the Final Four. Latta held to the ball and hardly moved a muscle, except to flash a smile that stretched as the clock thinned. Once the buzzer sounded on North Carolina's 84-72 victory over Purdue in the finals of the Dallas Regional on Tuesday night, the senior star threw the ball straight up and ran to join her teammates in celebration.
The Final Four is set. Florida takes on UCLA in Atlanta on Saturday. And Georgetown, reaching the NCAA semifinals for the first time in more than than two decades, will take on Ohio State.
LaToya Pringle's mom was counting the blocked shots, knowing her daughter needed three to becoming the single-season leader in North Carolina history. She had four by halftime. And the Tar Heels pretty much had their spot in the regional finals by then, too.
Even before they heard coach Roy Williams hollering, Brandan Wright and his North Carolina teammates could tell they were in big trouble.
The unthinkable upset not only seemed possible, it was beginning to look likely. Notre Dame sensed it was happening, and North Carolina's players were looking tentative and worried. And then the Tar Heels staged a game-saving 15-0 rally that came out of nowhere and saved the season of one of the prime contenders for the NCAA women's championship.
Prairie View's players tried to convince themselves that North Carolina was just another opponent, just another team. Only seconds after the mismatch began, it was obvious the Tar Heels were much, much more than that.
The mask protecting his broken nose kept sliding around, frustrating Tyler Hansbrough as he tussled in the paint with Michigan State's physical defenders. So North Carolina's big man tossed it off, then helped the Tar Heels dispose of the determined Spartans.
North Carolina built a big lead with the impressive up-tempo style that coach Roy Williams loves — only to watch a determined opponent nearly come all the way back.
North Carolina is young, deep, talented — and hardly without flaws. But by winning their first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title since 1998 with an 89-80 victory Sunday over North Carolina State, the eighth-ranked Tar Heels clearly re-established themselves as a force in the NCAA tournament.
Tyler Hansbrough insists there's no bad blood between him and Duke's Gerald Henderson, who broke the North Carolina star's nose in the closing seconds of the latest Tobacco Road showdown.
Ivory Latta fulfilled her promise, and North Carolina had just enough energy to overcome a team playing on adrenaline.
North Carolina just might have regained its swagger, and all it took was a lot of Little and some Latta. Camille Little scored 20 points, Ivory Latta added 17 and the No. 4 Tar Heels began their push for a third straight Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title by routing Virginia Tech 90-60 in a quarterfinal Friday night.
North Carolina guard Ivory Latta smiled and shook her head as the Carmichael Auditorium crowd chanted her name for the final time Thursday night. Latta and forward Camille Little did plenty of smiling in their last collegiate home game, a 96-47 win for the Tar Heels over Wake Forest on senior night.
Sidney Lowe always knew how to beat North Carolina as a player. The first-year coach proved he can also top the Tar Heels from the sideline.
George Mason and Bradley are headed to the Sweet 16. North Carolina and Pittsburgh are not. Eleventh-seed George Mason stunned the defending national champ Tar Heels 65-60 in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Lamar Butler's 18 points showed the way for the Patriots who become the first school from the Colonial Athletic Association to reach the round of 16 since 1988.