Tar Heels End With Flourish

North Carolina quarterback Oscar Davenport made his first start a memorable one, leading the 12th-ranked Tar Heels to a 20-13 Gator Bowl victory over No. 25 West Virginia on Wednesday.

Davenport, a sophomore substituting for injured All-Atlantic Coast Conference quarterback Chris Keldorf, frustrated the nation’s No. 1 defense most of the day with his arm and scrambling ability.

Davenport completed 14 of 26 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown and ran for 31 yards and a touchdown without a turnover.

“I think he’s going to be a great quarterback,” West Virginia All-American linebacker Canute Curtis said of Davenport. “He led his team and really played well. If he was the second-team quarterback, I don’t even want to see the first-team quarterback.”

The victory gave the Tar Heels (10-2) 10 victories for only the sixth time in 106 years of football and could land them in the final top 10 for the first time since finishing No. 9 in 1981.

North Carolina freshman cornerback Dre’ Bly intercepted his 12th and 13th passes as the nation’s top-rated team in turnover margin picked off three passes and recovered a fumble against a team that had only 10 turnovers in 11 previous games.

West Virginia (8-4) lost its sixth consecutive postseason game and closed the season losing four of five after a 7-0 start. West Virginia fell to 3-7 in bowl games under Coach Don Nehlen, who turned 61 on New Year’s Day.

“We played pretty daggone good for a team that wasn’t supposed to be here,” Nehlen said, a reference to Gator Bowl officials passing over Miami and Syracuse in favor of the Mountaineers, who finished fourth in the Big East Conference.