By JACK LeGWIN
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.– North Carolina is headed to the Sweet 16 with an 87-78 win over Arkansas behind 20 second-half points from point guard Marcus Paige.
They will face the winner of Wisconsin and Oregon in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams said that while this year has brought a great deal of heartache, getting a big win over a quality team and getting to the Sweet 16 does help.
“Losing Coach [Dean] Smith, losing Ted Seagroves, my big-time buddy, Stuart Scott, the stuff that we’ve had going on, Mitch Kupchak’s daughter, it’s been a hard year, it really has,” Williams said. “I probably acted sillier in the locker room after this game than I have in quite a while. I’m going to try to enjoy the dickens out of this one for a while tonight.”
Williams won his 65th NCAA Tournament game, which tied him for second all-time behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.
North Carolina also helped the ACC improve to 9-0 in the tournament.
Paige said that a big key for him in the second half was being patient and not forcing shots.
“I just settled down a little bit,” Paige said. “I got good shots in the first half, but I was rushing them. At this point in the year, you don’t want your last game of the year to be played poorly. This could have been the last game for us, so I had to step up.”
Step up he did, knocking down three 3-pointers, including 11 points in less than 3 minutes in the middle of the half to blow the lead open after it was tied at 59. The Tar Heels never looked back again.
