NCAA South: North Carolina silences Missouri, 84-70

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- North Carolina saved its talk for the basketball court. <br><br>The Tar Heels refused to be goaded into a war of words with Missouri, instead letting Brendan Haywood and Ed Cota lead

Saturday, March 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- North Carolina saved its talk for the basketball court.

The Tar Heels refused to be goaded into a war of words with Missouri, instead letting Brendan Haywood and Ed Cota lead them to a 84-70 victory over the Tigers on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA South Regional.

Haywood had a career-high 28 points and 15 rebounds, and Cota had 10 assists to become only the third player in NCAA history to reach 1,000 for his career.

The eighth-seeded Tar Heels (19-13) declined to comment a day earlier when told Missouri guard Clarence Gilbert said none of the current Carolina players were any good and all were too slow to guard him.

At first, it looked like Gilbert might be right. He opened the game with consecutive 3-pointers, then mugged to the Missouri crowd for support.

But North Carolina quickly found an answer, using a sizable height advantage -- seven Tar Heels are 6-feet-8 or taller compared to just two for Missouri -- and pounded the ball inside to the 7-foot Haywood all night.

North Carolina, which needs one more win to continue its streak of 28 straight 20-win seasons, will play the Stanford-South Carolina State winner in the second round Sunday.
Gilbert led Missouri with 16 points and Keyon Dooling had 13.

The Tar Heels, who lost 76-74 to Weber State in the first round of last year's tournament, led 41-31 lead with 1:19 to play in the first half. But ninth-seeded Missouri (18-13) finished the half with 10 straight points to close within three at 44-41.

But Haywood took early control of the second half, grabbing the rebound of Jason Capel's missed free throw and dunking, then scoring on a turnaround jumper 32 seconds later to give Carolina a 48-41 lead.

He and Cota then hooked up for Cota's milestone assist. With 12:11 to play, Cota whipped a line drive under the basket to Haywood, who dunked for a 59-49 North Carolina lead.

Capel added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Carolina, Joseph Forte scored 13 and Kris Lang added 11.

Missouri found itself in trouble less then two minutes into the game when senior guard Jeff Hafer picked up two fouls in about two seconds. He was whistled for his first foul with 18:57 to play, then hit again at the 18:55 mark when he reached in on the inbound pass.

Hafer played just 2:16 of the first half and failed to score or take a shot.