Lady Tigers Lose to No. 2 North Carolina Despite Strong First Half

Jan. 11, 2007

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) – Ivory Latta scored 23 points and No. 2 North Carolina stayed undefeated with its 10th straight victory over Clemson, 100-65 on Thursday night.

The Tar Heels (19-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) extended the second-best start in school history, their latest win breaking a tie with the 1994-95 team. This group is still three victories shy of North Carolina’s best start of 22-0 set a year ago.

Latta helped the Tar Heels break out of a first-half funk to get past Clemson (9-9, 1-2).

D’Lesha Lloyd’s basket with 1:39 to go in the opening half drew cut North Carolina’s 11-point lead to 32-30. But the Tar Heels finished the half with an 8-0 run – all at the free-throw line.

North Carolina and Latta picked up their play in the second half. Latta, playing her final college game in her home state, had a driving layup, a jumper and hit all the free throws after getting fouled on a 3-point try during the Tar Heels 17-7 run that pushed the lead to 57-37 with 14:26 left.

The Lady Tigers couldn’t get closer than 17 the rest of the way.

Clemson fell into its pattern this season of taking the court in the second half with less intensity than they left, coach Cristy McKinney said.

“We talked about it and talked about it,” McKinney said. “We’re going to keep working at it. But there’s some personal responsibilty on them. … At some point, they do have to figure it out.”

Latta, a South Carolina native, got a loud cheer as she left the game with about 5 minutes to go.

Rashanda McCants’ 3-pointer with 36 seconds left pushed North Carolina to the century mark for the third time this season – and second in the past three games.

Tasha Taylor had a career-high 27 points to lead Clemson.

North Carolina’s Erlana Larkins added 14 points and 12 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the season.

The Tar Heels step out of the ACC to take on No. 7 Connecticut at Carmichael Auditorium on Monday.

Early on, North Carolina had enough trouble handling Clemson’s defense, let alone tangle with the best teams in the country.

North Carolina led 19-8 when Latta hit a 3 and then fed a pretty pass to Larkins for a layup with about 6 minutes gone in the game.

The Tar Heels managed only 11 points over the next 10 minutes as the Lady Tigers got within 32-30.

North Carolina had 16 first-half turnovers, only three shy of their season’s average per game. Even Latta, their expressive star, wasn’t immune to mistakes.

She twice had the ball stolen from her and even missed the rim on a long three-point try, with the chants of “airball” appropriately following from the Littlejohn Coliseum crowd.

About the only place the Tar Heels shined was at the foul line. That’s where they hit their final 11 free throws of the half to take their halftime lead, 40-30.