COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : NCAA SOUTHEAST REGIONAL : North Carolina Bench Unseats Iowa State, 73-51

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —  It looked like last season’s NCAA tournament disaster all over.

North Carolina was trailing by 14 points and facing another stunning second-round elimination, this time at the hands of hot-shooting Iowa State.

But then the second-seeded Tar Heels rallied behind their reserves and three big runs to defeat the Cyclones, 73-51, Sunday in the NCAA Southeast regional.

North Carolina (26-5) will make its 14th trip in 15 years to the regional semifinals by playing sixth-seeded Georgetown (21-9) on Thursday in Birmingham, Ala.

“Around our place, they take it for granted we’ll make the final 16,” Coach Dean Smith said.

So when the Tar Heels fell behind, 24-9, they started thinking about last year’s second-round loss to Boston College. Only this time, they had a comeback left in them.

“Being down 14 in the first half wasn’t like being down 14 with five minutes to play,” Smith said. “It’s not panic time.”

Just as it wasn’t when the Tar Heels trailed Murray State by five points Friday before rallying for a 70-60 first-round victory behind backup center Serge Zwikker’s 19 points. On Sunday, Pat Sullivan, who averages only 1.3 points, rescued the Tar Heels with eight points and four rebounds.

North Carolina’s reserves kept the team from getting buried by scoring nine consecutive points during a 10-minute stretch when the starters didn’t score.

“The bench has been good for them throughout the tournament,” Iowa State Coach Tim Floyd said. “It seemed (that’s when) the wheels started coming off for us.”

Sullivan started the 14-0 run with a layup and walk-on Pearce Landry made a three-point shot that made it 23-14. Dante Calabria, fighting out of a shooting slump, finished off the surge with a three-point basket before scoring 10 of his 13 points in the second half.

Donald Williams, playing like he did when he was the 1993 NCAA tournament’s most valuable player, also had a big second half, scoring 13 of his 15 points to key runs of 11-0 and 21-4.

Jerry Stackhouse also scored 15 points as North Carolina lived up to Smith’s prediction of better second-round play, outscoring the out-of-sync Cyclones, 46-26, in the second half.

“Coach told us to stay calm and stay poised and do the things we can do,” Jeff McInnis said. “We continued to do that and we made our run . . . and that’s why we won the game.”

Still, the Tar Heels insisted they weren’t motivated by the loss to Boston College.

“We all know last year was disappointing, but I think we’ve showed we’ve come to play in this tournament,” Stackhouse said. “Hopefully, we can continue to improve and keep winning.”

Fred Hoiberg, averaging 20.2 points, was held to two in the final 28 1/2 minutes.