The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 107

Balky Hornets keep up with Pacers Johnson and Alonzo Mourning hammered the Pacers underneath and the Hornets controlled the boards at both ends And then quicker than you could say might have been louder by end had more people not vacated the arena After a hopscotch start to the season where nothing has been easy the Hornets (3-5) saw Indiana as a breakthrough game Instead the Hornets flopped For about 18 minutes Saturday night they looked sharp Charlotte got Indiana center Rik Smits in early foul trouble and kept Reggie Miller from getting started Lariy By RON GREEN Jr Staff Writer The Charlotte Hornets insist not spinning out of control this early in the season but being stuck in neutral getting them anywhere The Hornets started fast then disappeared Saturday night in an ugly 102-89 loss to the Indiana Pacers at the Charlotte Coliseum thought we were getting better but after tonight you have to think said Dell Curry who hit five of 17 shots in a 16-point night "This was a big game and we play like this a reason to be alarmed but not panic" It was unsettling enough that the cheers that rang out early when the Hornets built a 12-point first-half lead converted to boos by midway through the second half The boos Please see Hometspage 4G Loss to mourn caps a Duke season to cheer Larry Johnson speaks outpage 4G Heels inch past Devils By LYNN ZINSER Raleigh Bureau DURHAM It was a game of a million plays and nearly that many swings of emotion Duke and North Carolina traded punches like proud aging fighters and the barrage was endless But to North Carolina cornerback Fuzzy Lee one moment seemed to last longer than the rest of the game combined The football had been tipped high in the air and carried with it North hopes Lee settled under it and waited ball was turning and Lee said "I thought if I drop this never get another chance like this one It took forever" Lee drop it and his interception was the most improbable turn in the Tar wild 41-40 ACC win over Duke Saturday that defense had anything to do with the outcome The offenses combined for 81 points 1010 yards and 50 first downs They batted the lead back and forth like tennis players North Carolina (8-3 5-3) had a 10-point lead disappear in the final seven minutes Then the Blue Devils (8-3 5-3) had a 38-34 lead with two minutes 47 seconds left and the Tar Heels had no timeouts Then North Carolina scored on a 71 -yard touch- Please see UNCpage 8G Gamecocks rip Clemson By STAN OLSON Staff Writers CLEMSON SC South Carolina football coach Brad Scott decided to gamble Saturday afternoon He hit the jackpot For his audacity Scott won a sticky Gatorade shower and ride to midfield on the shoulders of his elated players in the midst of a writhing sea of noisy fist-pumping Gamecocks fans And South Carolina wound up with a decisive 33-7 victory over arch-rival Clemson in Memorial Stadium The win gave the Gamecocks a final 6-5 regular season record their first winning mark since 1990 It also almost assured first team of the first bowl game bid since 1988 Bids go out until next week but in the pandemonium that followed South triumph Carquest Bowl executive director Brian Flajole said "We said coming in we were very interested in South Carolina and done everything they could to impress us today have to wait and see on some other games but it looks as if we have a very good shot at South Carolina be happy to have South Carolina is in this promising position because of Scott who pretty much gambled all day But his Please see USCpage 1 1 DURHAM It began as a ripple a few students standing at the doorway to locker room as the Blue Devils trudged in from a 4 1 -40 loss to North Carolina Saturday a loss that hurt enough to make a man cry in the night Others gathered at the sound and joined in and the applause grew and never stopped until the last Blue Devil had gone inside There at that moment you felt what this outrageously wonderful team meant to Duke fans and perhaps to everyone who lives for Saturday afternoons That expression of appreciation was in effect a summary of this magical season when the Blue Devils perennial mediocrities picked to finish last in the ACC and playing under a new coach won eight times and but for two plays might have won 10 Duke and North Carolina ancient and arch rivals treated a crowd of 40 1 03 to a delightful memorable roller-coaster of a game jammed with good stuff and always in doubt It was a game worthy of the rivalry and the prize one of the best these two have played in a series dating back to 1888 Big plays were commonplace But North Carolina made the last big one an interception that killed a Duke drive down in scoring territory with 80 seconds left "We just ran out of said Fred Goldsmith whose miraculous turnaround of the Blue Devils this season earned them a bowl bid and won him consideration for national coach of the year honors felt this series would bring out the best in both teams and it did It was a great college football Spence Fischer threw 57 passes for Duke and completed 33 of them for 395 yards and four touchdowns including two late in the game when Duke was down 10 points Only one of his 57 throws was intercepted It was the killer the shot to the heart He had been throwing to Jon Jensen all day sending receivers deep and bringing Jensen across underneath the linebackers Jensen caught 14 passes But the last time they tried it down 41-38 with time running out and the ball at the North Carolina 28 the Tar Heels brought safety Sean Boyd up where Jensen had been catching all those balls Boyd hammered Jensen just as the ball arrived The ball fluttered high into the air and the Tar Fuzzy Lee gathered it in and that was that except for some tidying up that included an intentional safety by the Heels never saw him Jensen said "I was concentrating on the ball and all of a sudden I was on my "They read it and made a great Fischer said played a great game and left everything we had out there If there were 16 minutes in a quarter we would have won We just ran out of time a The Tar Heels who won their eighth game felt like fighters who had just won a close 1 5-rounder Tired but happy and glad to get out with a win against these guys who used to be a lot easier to subdue Mike Thomas who quarter-backed the victory said got some great players and a great head coach and they play hard every second Duke football tell you added Roge Purgason one of the Tar offensive linemen "we just played a great Duke team the best Duke team ever The Blue Devils were left with mixed emotions They had won respect even from North Carolina and they had an 8-3 record and a lock on a bowl bid But they also felt they came this close to being 10-1 Take the 8-3 and run says Duke safety Ray Farmer not going to he said healthy and we had a great time And even though we lost to North Carolina it was the best season the seniors ever had think anyone gave up 1 think anyone stopped believing And the thing take with And no doubt years from now when they reflect on this season the Blue Devils will remember the students lining their path and applauding them as they came in from a loss BOB LEVERONEStaff One of many: Marcus Wall (right) accepts congratulations Mike Thomas in wild 41-40 Tar Heels victory after scoring a North Carolina touchdown on a pass from over the Duke Blue Devils at Durham Seminoles Tack away ACC title Florida Florida State took a little time to rev its engine But once the Seminoles fired up NC State looked almost as helpless as they did one year ago in Florida 62-3 rout The Seminoles won mainly with the run blowing through NC line for 259 yards including 122 by Warrick Dunn Please see FSUpage 8G By SCOTT FOWLER Staff Writer RALEIGH For one dreamy quarter Saturday night NC quest for an ACC championship stayed intact floating above Carter-Finley Stadium like a soap bubble And then in the first five minutes of the second quarter the bubble winked out of existence Five straight touchdowns later Florida State had whipped NC State 34-3 and left the Wolfpack to fight for second place in the ACC against Virginia on Friday A loss to Virginia will probably place NC State (7-3 5-2) in the Independence Bowl held Dec 28 in Shreveport La The 25th-ranked Wolfpack could improve its bowl stock with a win Eighth-ranked Florida State (9-1 8-0) clinched its third straight ACC championship heading into intrastate showdown with For ACC centers tall is not all Bulk just not enough as quick agile post players establish a new style for the conference man to shoot three-pointers Florida State sophomore center Kirk Luch-man played his first go-around in the ACC last season and nearly became dizzy you played in the ACC hard to know what Luchman said found out pretty rough out there You go against guys who are as quick as guards but they're also 7-footers" The 6-10 Luchman promptly decided to lose 15 pounds in the offseason "That should help me keep up with Around the country the center is in danger of going out of style As teams turn to transition games three-point shooting and full-court presses as their staples those big burly guys are less of an asset The ACC however ignored the center It restyled him In doing so it has four of the best in the Please see Centerspage 17G By LYNN ZINSER Raleigh Bureau Two years ago Todd Fuller felt small Lining up in the pivot against such ACC centers as Malcolm Mackey and Eric Montross Fuller set his sights on bulking up for the four-year ride Now twisted in the other direction by a trend that has taken over the ACC Fuller often feels big and slow NC 6-11 junior center spent the summer worrying about his body fat and trying to improve his quickness Why? Instead of being ruled by mountainous hulks the pivot in the ACC is now manned by a group of quick agile players who may be tall to boot but they just taking up space these days team in this league has a good post man and quickness is a big Fuller said "I certainly feel a little extra quickness would have helped me" Fuller at 6-1 1 255 pounds is as traditional as they come in the new era of ACC centers He is solid but not spectacular among a group of ACC Preview What to watch for in the upcoming seasonPage 16G Area schedules Keep up with your favorite Carolines teamPage18G Coming Monday suddenly stylish centers: Joe Smith is pnly 6-9 but impossible to keep off the boards North Rasheed Wallace is 6-10 and can run and jump like a guard He moves into the center spot vacated by the mammoth Montross Wake Tim Duncan a skinny 6-10 look like he could outmuscle a house pet but quick and sneaky and blocks almost anything that comes near him Duke's Cherokee Parks looks the part of the traditional center at 6-11 240 but you find Parks with his back to the basket long Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski implores his big Previews of the Metro Conference Big South and MEAC Colorado 41 Iowa State 20 Texas A 34 TCU 17 Kansas State 23 Oklahoma St 6 Oregon 17 Oregon State 13 UCLA 31 Southern Cal 19 Virginia 42 Virginia Tech 23 Ohio State 22 Michigan 6 Coveragepages 8G-12G 1.