CHAPEL HILL — Smith Center patrons were on their feet.
Carolina trailed by one, the final seconds were ticking away, and freshman sensation Cole Anthony had returned and was in possession for a struggling team that had won two straight.
The feel-good ending was not to be, however, left in the rubble of an airball, mistakes down the stretch and the inevitable chemistry issues in the tailwind of such a fairy tale opportunity.
Carolina lost to Boston College 71-70 on Saturday night. Anthony was back from an 11-game absence, scoring 26 points in 26 minutes and also accepting a large share of blame for the ending.
“I made a bad decision,” he said. “I let my team down.”
He was, arguably, harder on himself than he should have been. Jarius Hamilton had made two of three foul shots from a debatable foul with 17.2 seconds left, a juncture that included Carolina’s Brandon Robinson injured and helped to the locker room by teammates. Both teams essentially got a timeout.
Anthony brought the basketball into the frontcourt, the Eagles were high into the perimeter with their defense to stymie passes to the wings and high post, and the options — like seconds on the clock — were gone quickly.
“I wanted to get somebody to get the ball inside, set an early screen,” said head coach Roy Williams. “We had one guy come up and Cole was trying to get Garrison to come up and there was a miscommunication and we settled for a terrible shot.”
Anthony shot from a few steps behind the 3-point line and well-defended, the clock going to zeroes as it missed everything.
“I could have called timeout, or took an early shot,” Anthony said. “I made a bad decision.”
Later asked to grade his play, “C-minus. No, D-plus.” Why? “We lost.”
“I thought Cole was sensational for us,” Williams said, then he shook his head and added, “We had two big box-outs at the far end of the game and a turnover on the inbounds pass.”
Anthony was irritated by the turnover, one that led to a three-point Carolina lead in the final three minutes being wiped out by shots from former Duke guard Derryck Thornton.
Williams was bothered by the play of Armando Bacot and Garrison Brooks, two post players who had been emerging but on this night regressed in Anthony’s return. That’s the chemistry issue to be resolved, one Anthony says will.
“Me and Garrison got a little staggered, watching Cole,” Bacot said.
Williams doesn’t like to finger-point players, but let slip that he was disappointed in the pair.
“The first three or four possessions, they are moving aggressively and we were throwing the ball to them. Then they stopped moving,” the head coach said. “We shot 36 percent, that’s about what we shot all fricking year. It’s not any personnel changes, but our team needs to be coached better and play better.
“Garrison has played great, but 0-for-7 free throws, that doesn’t usually happen.”
Unusual, too, is the in and out of so many players for Carolina. They won’t use it as an excuse, even if it is a reality. Seven different players had combined to miss 65 games entering this tussle, and Robinson’s sprained ankle raises the possibility of more.
The Heels won’t quit. But at 10-11, their margin for error in making the NCAA Tournament as an at-large is minimal if any. There’s always what was once the only way in — winning the ACC Tournament.
Ten games remain, half against the Big Four. Three others are against reigning national champion Virginia, No. 6 Louisville and always-interesting Notre Dame.
A winning streak would have very nice resume points and could make this incredibly entertaining and fun.
Saturday, however, was not a fun ending. It was heartbreak. The fairly tale return went poof at the buzzer.
“We can get better,” Anthony said.
No doubt.