Two minutes in the balance

North Carolina coach Roy Williams was concerned about a few foul calls (or no-calls) that went against the Tar Heels late in their 73-70 loss to Florida State, but the Heels never should have been in that position.

The Heels didn’t lose the game in the final two minutes of the second half. They lost it in the final two minutes of the first half.

Carolina was cruising comfortably on the outside shooting of Wayne Ellington until the Heels fell asleep as the half wounddown, with Florida State going on a 9-2 run to close out the half.

"It gave us momentum," Seminoles star Toney Douglas said. "We weren't playing as well as we were capable of on the offensive end. We really came out in the second half and really executed everything. Once we got momentum on the offensive end, we got our defense going and we took over the game from there." 

Douglas hit a pair of threes, including one with the shot clock running down that drew a Bobby Frasor foul as well. Douglas missed from the line, but the Seminoles got the rebound and tacked on two more before the buzzer from low-clock expert Derwin Kitchen, who dispatched Georgia Tech on Friday.

That spurt turned a nine-point Carolina cushion, the Heels’ biggest lead of the day, into a 32-29 lead at the half, and that lead didn’t last long.

Kitchen and Douglas scored on Florida State’s first two possessions of the second half to put the Seminoles in the lead and while the Heels would get back on top down the stretch, it was never by much.

Buoyed by big three-pointers from Devidas Dulkys and Chris Singleton, the Seminoles shot 67 percent from the field in the second half and held on to beat the Heels.