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Tar Heels cream Pack in snowy Chapel Hill

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In an unusual atmosphere, where no ticket was necessary and fans could sit where they want, North Carolina creamed N.C. State with a 15-2 run early that just snowballed and ended with a 97-73 win in snowy Chapel Hill. (2/19)

With the score tied at 6-all, five different Tar Heels scored as Carolina raced out to a 21-8 lead in the first eight minutes. UNC got a couple of late first-half threes from reserve Cade Tyson, who hadn’t hit a triple since Jan. 1, to push the Heels lead to 28, 54-26 at the half.

Though it seemed as if the game was over, the Tar Heels have had trouble putting teams away this year plus State came out hot in the second half, scoring 17 points before the first TV timeout.

The Tar Heels pushed the lead to 30 early in the second half but then the Wolfpack hit eight of their next 12 shots to cut the margin to 22 on a Michael O’Connell backdoor bucket that made it 69-47 with 12:38 left in the game.

But UNC freshman Ian Jackson swished a three, banked one high off the backboard and hit a couple of free throws to extend the lead to 76-49. It didn’t get closer than 22 again until the last minute when the Pack made it 93-73.

A pair of buckets by little-used James Brown in the last 50 seconds – one on an assist from walk-on Russell Hawkins – wrapped up the game before a loud crowd, made up mostly of students.

“The crowd was amazing,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “The weather is rough and we had 14-15,000 people here. Some of the players noted to me that the crowd was different. It made a difference.”

The aggressive Carolina defense made a difference early as the Heels forced several of the Pack’s nine turnovers in the first half. State ended the game with just 10 turnovers but the damage was done.

“Defensively our players were on the ball, active contesting shots and getting loose balls,” Coach Davis said. “We’ve been great in transition but in order to get there you have to have stops.”

Coach Davis said pressure defense created turnovers, including three while pressuring the Wolfpack full-court, and that ignited the team.

RJ Davis, who was particularly active controlling the pace in the first half, led the Tar Heels with 21 points. Seth Trimble, who led the Heels with seven rebounds, added 15 points while Ven-Allen Lubin scored 13 points, all in the second half. Jackson was the fourth Carolina player in double figures with 12 points.

The Tar Heels shot 57.4 percent from the field including 40 percent from the three-point line. Jayden Taylor and Dontrez Styles, who played two years at Carolina and then a year at Georgetown, finished with 19 and 18 points respectively for N.C. State, which drops to 10-16 overall and 3-12 in the ACC.

Carolina advances to 16-11 overall and 9-6 in the conference. The Tar Heels host Virginia Saturday at 4 p.m.

This was the 40th time in the last 47 games between Carolina and State that the Tar Heels have come out on top.

Box score