Nov 16, 2001

Box Score |  Quotes

By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's players sat in their new locker room, under a series of Final Four banners and tried to explain a season-opening loss to Hampton.

That might have been more difficult than the game.

Tommy Adams scored 20 points for Hampton, and the 19th-ranked Tar Heels were baited into missing 28-of-34 3-pointers by a zone defense as the Pirates upset one of college basketball's storied programs 77-69 Friday night.

"Every game we go into we expect to win," said senior Brian Bersticker, who sat in front of his locker and stared off into space as he answered questions. "Yeah, we are all kind of shocked. But that's what great about college basketball, anybody can beat anybody on any given night."

Hampton, the defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions, lost three starters off a team that upset second-seeded Iowa State in last season's NCAA tournament and were without suspended starter Cleveland Davis.

But the Tar Heels trailed by double digits most of the way and didn't have Joseph Forte or Brendan Haywood - both first-round NBA picks - to rally behind as the Pirates stunned North Carolina and its fans.

"The one thing I do know about our kids is they know how to win," said Hampton coach Steve Merfeld, who led the Pirates to a 25-7 record last season and a stunning NCAA upset. "They don't like losing. We'll compete and battle to the bitter end.

"The will that this team has acquired over the last year gets us through a lot of tough situations like tonight."

Barry Hairston and Devin Green each added 18 points for the Pirates, who made 14 straight free throws in the final 2:35 to help seal it.

"This is like the Mecca of college basketball," said Green, a freshman who played 35 minutes. "This is my first college basketball game with a new team and we did it, we did it."

Jason Capel, who sat out the preseason with a hamstring injury, scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds, but was 1-for-9 from beyond the arc as Hampton didn't play one possession of man-to-man defense.

"I strongly feel this is my fault for not doing a better job of preparing our team for a zone defense - and I should have," UNC coach Matt Doherty said. "I take full responsibility for that. I put our guys in a bad position. We got exposed in that regard."

North Carolina pulled to 53-47 with 6:50 left after Hampton had scored two points in a span of 7:13.

But a 10-0 run by the Pirates sealed North Carolina's fate. Hairston had a 12-footer and two layups during Hampton's run as North Carolina turned the ball over three times in a three-minute span.

It was just the second loss for North Carolina in its last 73 openers. The Tar Heels fell to Michigan State two years ago.

North Carolina's problems in two exhibition games - poor outside shooting and suspect perimeter defense - followed the Tar Heels into the regular season.

The Tar Heels missed their first 10 3-pointers, and had just 13 points in 13 minutes.

North Carolina didn't start out much better on the defensive end as Hampton made seven of its first eight shots to build an 11-point lead less than four minutes in as the Smith Center crowd grew quiet.

"In a situation like this we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from it," Merfeld said. "We went in with a simple game plan that they were going to have to beat us from the outside. There was no way we could guard Kris Lang one-on-one around the goal."

The Pirates went through a cold spell in the middle of the period, but the Tar Heels failed to capitalize, going 1-for-10 from the field with three turnovers over a 6{-minute span as Hampton built the lead to 33-18 late in the half.

By that time Doherty had seen enough, calling a time out 3:45 before the break to yell at his team, which shot 32.4 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

Eight North Carolina players took 3-pointers in the first half, but they combined to go 4-for-21 against Hampton's 2-3 zone.

The 34 3-point attempts set a school record for North Carolina it would soon forget. The previous mark was 31 against Florida State in 1996.