As bottles – not to mention boos – rained down from the Carrier Dome stands, North Carolina head coach Roy Williams rushed his players off the court as fast as he could. They headed for the safety of their locker room to dodge the hailstorm of Aquafinas.

They escaped the carnage with a 67-66 victory over No. 5-seeded Villanova in front of 30,916 fans in the Carrier Dome. UNC will play No. 6-seed Wisconsin on Sunday at 2:40 p.m. for a trip to the Final Four.

The Wildcats (24-8) found themselves down three points with nine seconds remaining. Villanova guard Allan Ray drove to the basket and made an off-balance runner. Referees blew the whistle. Ray thought he drew the foul, earning a three-point play to tie the game.

The referees saw differently, calling him for a travel.

‘I thought the ref called a foul,’ Ray said. ‘(But) we should never have put ourselves in our position anyway.’

‘I knew if there was going to be a foul called,’ said UNC junior Rashad McCants, ‘it would have been one of the worst calls I’ve seen.’

Immediately, Ray and the Villanova cheering section erupted. Villanova fouled McCants on the inbounds. He made one of two shots, giving UNC (30-4) a four-point lead. Villanova guard Kyle Lowery, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, raced downcourt and made a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining, cutting the lead to one.

UNC’s Sean May then attempted an inbounds pass, which Ray almost picked off. Instead, he was only able to bat it out of bounds. On UNC’s next try, with 1.8 seconds left, the ball went deep. After a brief scrum, Villanova ended up with the ball, but a halfcourt heave was long, ending Villanova’s season. Randy Foye finished with 28 points, a career high.

Then came the bottles. Ray stripped out of his jersey in disgust while both teams headed to the locker rooms.

The Wildcats held a 33-29 lead at halftime. But the Tar Heels tied the game at 35 with 17:28 remaining. They surged to a 10-point lead with 3:45 to go, but the Wildcats kept coming back.

They scored the next six points to cut the lead to two with 40 seconds to go, but clutch free throws from Melvin Scott increased the lead to four. That led to the controversial finish, which left a majority of the Carrier Dome fans bitter, knowing they nearly missed the biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament.

‘I think (Villanova head coach Jay Wright) did a better job with his team than I did with mine,’ Williams said.

North Carolina almost became the third No. 1 seed to get knocked out of the tournament. Earlier in the evening, its instate rival, Duke, was eliminated by Michigan State.

‘It’s all about survival,’ May said. ‘Survive and move on. It wasn’t pretty. It was ugly. It’s all about finding a way to win. We did that and we’re moving on.’

Published on March 25, 2005 at 12:00 pm