CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- Every championship team needs a crutch,
a player to lean on when times get tough. There's no doubt North
Carolina has one of the nation's best.
|  | | North Carolina's Joseph Forte (40) works his way around the Seminoles on his way to 36 points.
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Joseph Forte scored 36 points as the No. 2 Tar Heels rebounded
from its first defeat in 2˝ months with a 95-67 victory over Florida
State on Thursday night.
"I feel he's national player of the year," North Carolina's
Brendan Haywood said. "Everybody wants to give it to the guys down
the road (at Duke), but nobody is helping their team win more
basketball games than Joe Forte right now."
The Seminoles surely didn't have an answer for the 6-foot-4
sophomore guard.
"He's got a great mid-range game," said Florida State's Adrian
Crawford, one of several players who tried to guard Forte. "I've
watched a lot of college basketball through the years, and I
haven't seen anyone that comfortable inside the 3-point line in a
long time."
The Tar Heels (22-3, 12-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) saw their
18-game winning streak broken at Clemson on Sunday, but led by 10
at halftime this time around and shot 57 percent to win going away.
The victory kept North Carolina one game ahead of Duke in
the race for the ACC regular season title with three games left.
The two teams meet at the Smith Center on March 4.
"The Clemson loss was behind us when we got to the locker room
and realized that we dropped an egg," point guard Ronald Curry
said. "We couldn't let that loss hang over us. All of our goals
are still reachable. If that would have taken us out of the (ACC)
race it would have been totally different."
Kris Lang added 13 points and nine rebounds for the Tar Heels,
while Haywood's five blocks tied him with Rasheed Wallace's 93 in
1994-95 for the most in a single-season at North Carolina.
Crawford and Delvon Arrington led Florida State with 12 points
each.
The Seminoles (7-19, 2-11) beat No. 20 Maryland and played No. 9
Virginia to a three-point game last week, but fell to 1-10 this
season against ranked teams after shooting 39 percent and turning
it over 17 times.
The defeat moved Florida State to one of its most defeats
since going 5-20 in 1951-52 and back into a last-place tie in the
ACC with Clemson.
Forte was coming off a 6-for-19 shooting game against the
Tigers, but the ACC's top scorer was 15-for-24 against the
Seminoles, getting four baskets over the final 5:13 of the opening
half as North Carolina's 16-3 run opened up a double-digit lead.
"I was very anxious to get back on the court, as a competitor,
as a player," Forte said. "Especially with what we've got going
here. I just wanted to get back after it. We took care of
business."
Forte added seven points in the opening 3:40 of the second half
before the Seminoles closed to six twice, the last time with
14:35 remaining.
Adam Boone then sank a 3-pointer and Forte made three of North
Carolina's next four baskets as North Carolina pushed its lead to
19 with 8:09 left.
"I just wanted to make sure we didn't lose," Forte said of his
8-for-11 shooting in the second half. "I was feeling it and the
game was close. I just wanted to make sure I canceled their run."
It was Forte's third 30-point game this season -- all in the
Smith Center. He had a career-high 38 points against Tulsa in the
second game of the season, then had 33 against Virginia on Jan. 24.
The Tar Heels started out sluggish after coming off one of their
worst outings of the season at Clemson, managing just 17 points in
the opening 12 minutes before going on their first-half run behind
Forte.
Kansas coach Roy Williams, who turned down the North Carolina
last summer, was in attendance to watch former Jayhawks' assistants
Steve Robinson and Matt Doherty.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Florida State Clubhouse
North Carolina Clubhouse
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