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Feb. 1, 1998
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - No. 21 Clemson's woes on the road continued Sunday.
No. 6 North Carolina beat Clemson 80-59 to hand the Tigers their fourth road loss to a Top 25 team and push them out of first place in the tight Atlantic Coast Conference race.
"We're just not very successful on the road this year," Clemson coach Jim Davis said. "We've got to get it straightened out, because we still have three big games on the road left to go."
Davis thought he had the answer to Clemson's troubles Sunday, with a diamond-and-one defense plus a myriad of other schemes to stop North Carolina's Tracy Reid, the ACC's leading scorer.
That just opened the way for Chanel Wright to score a season-high 26 points, while Reid still got 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"I saw they had a box-and-one on Tracy, plus other things. They changed defenses a lot," Wright said. "I just took advantage of the opportunities when they were there."
Nikki Teasley added 16 points and a career-high 11 assists to help move North Carolina (17-4, 7-3 ACC) within one-and-a-half games of the league lead.
"We're getting better. We're seeing glimpses of how good this team can be," North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "We knew this was a big game for us. Overall, it was our best effort of the year."
Itoro Umoh scored 21 points, including 12-for-12, to lead Clemson (16-5, 8-3 ACC). Amy Geren added 17 for the Tigers, who dropped a game behind No. 12 North Carolina State (18-3, 9-2) in the ACC race.
"We did a good job on Amy. She still got two 3s, but at least we kept her from going crazy at the 3-point line," Hatchell said.
Leading from start to finish, North Carolina connected on 30 of 62 shots from the field and outrebounded Clemson 39-35.
Reid went 8-for-11 from the floor while notching her 42nd career double-double, her 12th of the season.
The Tigers trailed North Carolina 42-35 at halftime, then managed just one basket in the first 6:07 of the second half. Teasley started an 11-2 run just after halftime with a 3-pointer from the top of the key that put UNC up 53-37. The Tigers never got closer than 59-47 after that and trailed by as much as 72-51 after a Teasley layup with 6:08 remaining.
"I felt pretty good at halftime. We were within striking distance and I thought we would take the fight to them in the second half halftime," Davis said. "Then, they came out smoking in the second half, and for whatever reason, we couldn't defend, or wouldn't defend them."
With its fourth straight win, North Carolina avenged a 77-63 loss earlier this season at Clemson. The Tigers have not won in Chapel Hill since a 80-79 victory in 1990.
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