GWU Falls, 93-72, At 11th-Ranked North Carolina, Despite Flittner's Record Night
November 24, 2009 | Men's Basketball
CHAPEL HILL - Grayson Flittner tied a Smith Center record with nine three-pointers, but his 32 points were not enough as No. 6 North Carolina topped the Runnin' Bulldogs 93-72 Monday Night.
Gardner-Webb (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season, but Flittner's outside touch made it less than easy for the defending national champion Tar Heels (5-1).
Carolina used its size to take a 53-38 lead into the locker room, with Flittner's 20 first-half points keeping Gardner-Webb within striking distance. The Tipton, Ind., native made 6-of-9 treys in the opening stanza in just 18 minutes - scoring over half of GWU's point total in the process.
Forward Deon Thompson's 16 points led the Tar Heels at the break, with a 54.5 percent shooting effort (23-of-42) helping build the hosts' double digit edge.
Flittner was far from through, however. Carolina pushed its lead to 21 points just two minutes into the second half, but Flittner drained three free throws after a foul outside the arc to cut that margin back to 16, 59-43, with 16:47 left in the game.
The Tar Heels attacked the rim effectively to keep the margin in double digits, and stretched the lead to 74-54 on a Tyler Zeller bucket with 10:03 left. Flittner followed that surge with another three-pointer and, after another Gardner-Webb burst, assisted on Tom Staton's three-ball with 6:48 to play that cut the Tar Heels' lead to 12 points, 77-65.
After Carolina stretched its lead back to 18 points, Flittner dropped in his ninth three of the evening to make the score 83-68 with 5:28 remaining. Gardner-Webb was not able to piece together another run, dropping their first game of the season.
Flittner made 10-of-19 shots - 9-of-16 from long distance - to finish two points shy of his career-high point total. His three-point barrage tied the Smith Center record held by Georgia Tech's Dennis Scott and Drew Barry.
Gardner-Webb made 15-of-36 shots as a team from deep, which is tied for the fifth-most ever allowed by the Tar Heels in a single game, and four shy of the GWU single-game team record.
Freshman point guard Brian McNair finished with nine points, four assists and a steal in his second career start - and the trio of Luke Engelken (six points), Anton Silver (six points) and Staton (five points, three assists) paced a GWU bench effort that produced 21 points.
Josh Henley scored six points and scrapped his way to 10 rebounds against a mammoth front line.
North Carolina got 22 points and 10 boards from Thompson as the Tar Heels shot 56.1 percent from the floor and outscored GWU 58-12 in the paint. Ed Davis added 15 points and 13 rebounds - and Zeller scored 16 points off the bench. Carolina attempted just four three-point shots in the game.
Gardner-Webb returns home to host SoCon divisional favorite Western Carolina at 7:00 pm on Saturday, November 28. North Carolina will host Nevada on Sunday, November 29.
