Mike Daniels, Editor-in-Chief

The bad news for Buzz Peterson’s Appalachian State basketball team is that they lost their first game of the season last Friday by 23 points, 87-64.

The good news is they lost the game to the toughest opponent they will face all season, the 11th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels.

Some more good news is that unlike last year’s 96-63 drubbing that the Mountaineers suffered at the hands of the Heels, this year’s meeting between the two teams was actually still undecided at halftime.

After going up 2-0, courtesy of a Cedrick Holmes lay-up, the Mountaineers found themselves trying to put a cap on UNC’s scoring monster, center Brendan Haywood, who had 11 of the Tar Heels’ first 13 points and two slam dunks.

Yet, nine minutes into the game, the Mountaineers, themselves, were down by just two points, 19-17.

Unfortunately, ASU would not get any closer than that.

Exploiting their huge size advantage over the Mountaineers, the Tar Heels were able to control the paint and pound the Apps underneath the basket at both ends of the floor, as big men such as the seven-foot Haywood, 6’11" Brian Bersticker and 6’10" Kris Lang collected easy rebounds and baskets.

“All those guys are big, and we don’t see a lot of that in our conference,” said Peterson.

The Mountaineers hung tough, however, as forwards Marshall Phillips, whose monstrous first half dunk was a Sports Center highlight that night, and Holmes fought valiantly for the Apps underneath, while guards Tyson Patterson and Matt McMahon provided some much needed outside scoring.

At the half, the Tar Heels had clawed their way to an 11-point, 42-31 lead, behind Haywood’s 17 points.

In the second half, the Mountaineers came out strong, cutting the Carolina lead to seven points, before the Tar Heels pulled away again after a TV time-out at the 15:39 mark.

Over the next seven and a half minutes, UNC turned a precarious seven-point lead into a very secure 20-point lead.

Appalachian would get no closer than 17 points for the rest of the game, as Carolina cruised to victory.

Despite the loss, there were several bright spots in the game.  Phillips, who actually shattered one of Carolina’s backboards at the Dean Dome the day before during practice, had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Phillips also had three steals in the game.

Peterson joked afterward that one of the reasons the Mountaineers lost was because of the half hour of practice time the team lost while workers at the Smith Center cleaned up and replaced the broken backboard.

Patterson, who chalked up 13 points, was impressive on defense, guarding All-ACC second-teamer Ed Cota. Despite allowing Cota to score 17 points, Patterson did a good job of keeping Cota out of the lane and from cutting inside for baskets.

“He’s a real good point guard. I did okay against him, but I feel whoever’s team wins, that point guard did the best job,” said Patterson.

Other top performers for the Mountaineers were McMahon, who went 4-7 from behind the three-point arc and scored 14 points; and newcomers Holmes, Shawn Alexander and Buddy Davis, who all looked strong in their Mountaineer debuts.

In fact, second-year Tar Heel Coach Bill Guthridge was impressed with several elements of the Mountaineers’ game.  “Early in the game, they got the ball low in the post, and I think that hurt us in the first half. They have some good athletes on their team,” said Guthridge.

Peterson, the 1986 UNC alum and former roommate of Michael Jordan, said his team may have been a little jittery because they were playing in front of such a large audience.

 Among the 20,257 people in attendance were former Tar Heels and current or past NBA stars Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Bobby Jones, Dave Cowens and Brad Daugherty, who was the color commentator for Fox Sports South, which televised the game.

Also in attendance was former Tar Heel Coach Dean Smith, who participated in the halftime ceremonies, in which the jerseys of Wallace and Stackhouse were placed in the rafters. It was under Smith that roommates Peterson and Jordan played as freshmen on the 1982 national championship team, while Guthridge was assistant coach.

Jordan, who was in Chapel Hill Thursday night to meet with Peterson, Guthridge and others at UNC, was not in attendance at the game.

The 0-1 Mountaineers will try to put a win under their belts Tuesday night when they play King College at 7 p.m. in their home opener at Varsity Gymnasium. 

Following that game, the Mountaineers will face another tough conference opponent on the road when they take on Minnesota next Saturday.