University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Coppin State
North Carolina Dominates Coppin State In Opening Round, 97-62
March 20, 2005 | Women's Basketball
March 20, 2005
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By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Ivory Latta scored 27 points Sunday night in North Carolina's 97-62 rout of Coppin State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Camille Little added 17 points for the Tar Heels (28-3), the top seed in the Tempe Regional. North Carolina has won 14 straight games since a loss at Florida State in January, and advanced to face George Washington in a second-round game on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Sherrie Tucker scored 14 points to lead the 16th-seeded Lady Eagles (23-8) in their first NCAA tournament game.
North Carolina is a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1997, and is seeking to make it out of the tournament's opening weekend for the first time in three years. The Tar Heels lost a second-round game at Colorado in 2003 and were upset as a No. 4 seed in the first round last year by Middle Tennessee.
In that 67-62 loss, Latta scored just five points on 1-for-13 shooting, and the Tar Heels shot 38 percent.
But on Sunday, the Tar Heels probably had more trouble getting to the on-campus Smith Center - where they won three games this season - than handling anything Coppin State could throw at them. They set season-highs with 62-percent shooting and 12 3-pointers, and had five players in double figures.
They also scored 31 points off 27 turnovers.
North Carolina hadn't played since beating rival Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final two weeks ago, but the Tar Heels didn't show any signs of rust. They hit 13 of their first 14 shots, including their first five 3-pointers, and used a run of 25 unanswered points to put the game out of reach in the first 10 minutes.
The Tar Heels got anything they wanted in transition, starting fast breaks by forcing turnovers with their aggressive trapping defense. Latta scored 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the half, helping the Tar Heels to a 54-21 lead at the break.
North Carolina shot 71 percent in the half, and pushed its lead to as many as 43 points after the break.
Latta finished 9-for-13 from the field, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Nikita Bell added 16 points and Leah Metcalf had 14 with four 3s.
The Tar Heels have had little trouble advancing when playing in Chapel Hill, where they are 17-1 in NCAA first- and second-round games. Their only defeat came against Old Dominion in the 1987 second round.
Early in the second half, several members of the North Carolina men's basketball team - including coach Roy Williams - filed into the stands to watch the game. The men's team had arrived from Charlotte, where it beat Iowa State to reach the NCAA round of 16 earlier Sunday.
North Carolina was the only school to have both its men's and women's basketball teams earn No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.
