NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Brendan Haywood, Joseph Forte and North
Carolina made themselves right at home in the Superdome.
|  | | Brendan Haywood couldn't always keep his grip on the ball, but he managed 15 points for the Tar Heels. |
The Tar Heels, returning to the site of their last two NCAA
championship victories, quickly ended any thought of another
Princeton upset with a 70-48 win Friday night in the opening round
of the South Regional.
"A lot of teams have been going down in the first round. We
didn't want to be one of those teams," Haywood said.
It was no contest from the very start. Princeton center Nate
Walton – son of former star Bill Walton – did not even jump for the
opening tipoff, instead dropping into a defensive position against
the 7-foot Haywood.
With Matt Doherty coaching his first game in the NCAA Tournament
and shouting "Back Screen!" to warn his team against Princeton's
favorite back-door layups, the second-seeded Tar Heels took an 8-0
lead and made it 36-16 at halftime.
"It's hard to get in a flow against Princeton because they hold the ball and jam the lane. But we got into a pretty good flow at times," Doherty said.
Tigers coach John Thompson III could do little in his first NCAA
Tournament game. His father, former Georgetown coach John Thompson,
could do nothing at all from the second row of the Princeton rooting section.
"It was gut-wrenching to sit here and watch," the older Thompson said at halftime.
At least he was a good sport, signing a North Carolina fan's
T-shirt during the break.
The taller and much more athletic Tar Heels saw Princeton close
within 12 points in the second half before breaking away behind
Haywood's dunks.
North Carolina (26-6) advanced to play Penn State, a 69-59 winner over Providence, on Sunday. The teams last met in the 1981-82 season, with the Tar Heels winning on their way to the national title.
Haywood finished with 15 points. Forte, an All-American, had 13
points, 12 rebounds and a nifty behind-the-back drive for a layup.
Jason Capel and Julius Peppers each scored 12 points for the Tar
Heels, trying to return to the Final Four for the second straight season.
Ed Persia led Princeton (16-11) with 16 points. The 6-foot-7 Walton had nine, including a couple of hook shots like his father used to make.
"We're going to think about this for the rest of our lives,
about what might have been," said Walton, a senior.
Persia hit three straight 3s as the Ivy League champions managed
to pull within a dozen points early in the second half, forcing
North Carolina to call timeout.
That was as close as the 15th-seeded Tigers got. They never
threatened to duplicate their upset of UCLA in the 1996 or the
scares they put into the likes of Georgetown, Arkansas and
Villanova in past tournaments.
"We came out and got the shots we wanted, they just weren't falling," Thompson said.
The Tar Heels improved to 5-0 in NCAA tourney games at the
Superdome, and 7-0 overall at the building.
Doherty was on the court -- he jokingly said he was wide-open at
the foul line -- when Michael Jordan's jumper with 17 seconds left
gave North Carolina a 63-62 win over Georgetown for the 1982 title.
Thompson III was a teen-ager at the time, sitting behind his dad's
bench.
The Tar Heels also won the 1993 championship at the Superdome,
defeating Michigan.
North Carolina made its record 27th appearance in the NCAAs and
showed no ill effects from its last game, a 26-point loss to Duke
for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title.
Princeton, which shot the fewest foul shots in Division I this
season, did not get a free throw in the first half and finished
1-for-2. The Tar Heels were 15-for-18.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Princeton Clubhouse
North Carolina Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Matt Doherty says North Carolina gets more confident with every win. (courtesy NCAA)
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Jason Capel says this win will help the Tar Heels in the next rounds. (courtesy NCAA)
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