No. 4 Wake Forest Upends No. 3 N.C. 95-82

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Posted 4:48PM on Saturday, January 15, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Chris Paul dominated his point guard matchup with Raymond Felton, Taron Downey had a season-high 18 points and fourth-ranked Wake Forest ran away from the third-ranked North Carolina 95-82 Saturday. Wake Forest (15-1, 4-0) set an Atlantic Coast Conference record by making all 32 free throws - falling two short of tying the NCAA mark - with Paul finishing 9-for-9. The 6-foot sophomore finished with 24 points, eight assists and six rebounds to overshadow Felton, who shot only 5-for-18 and had 16 points. But Downey gave his team an unexpected boost. A senior whose playing time decreased with the emergence of Paul, he came in averaging only 7.6 points. He beat that total by making three consecutive 3-pointers during a 90-second stretch of the first half to give the Deacons their first lead at 14-13, and the score was tied only once after that. The Tar Heels (14-2, 3-1), who lost for the first time since their opener at Santa Clara, struggled throughout with foul trouble. Jackie Manuel, Marvin Williams and David Noel all fouled out, and Rashad McCants had four. McCants finished with 19 points and Williams added 15 for North Carolina. Because of a quirk in the scheduling for the newly expanded ACC, this was the only meeting of the season for the teams, the first time since 1922 they haven't played a home-and-home. It also was the first time they've played while both were ranked in the top five. McCants picked up his fourth foul about a minute into the second half and sat on the bench for 10 minutes. When he returned, he tried to rally North Carolina by himself, scoring 12 points down the stretch. Wake Forest took control with a 10-0 spurt early in the second half, with four players contributing. Downey finished it off by getting fouled on a 3 and making his three free throws to put the Deacons ahead 53-38, and North Carolina threatened only a couple of times. One of those came after McCants' layup with about 8 1/2 minutes left cut the lead to 66-58, the first time the margin had been less than 10 since early in the second half. Later, McCants drove around Jamaal Levy to score to make it 83-75. Paul had the answer for the Deacons, throwing a full-court pass to an open Eric Williams for a dunk, and they finished it off by -what else? - making their free throws. The NCAA record of 34-for-34 has been done twice, most recently by Samford on Dec. 20, 1990.