Brice Johnson scored 22 points and hauled in 11 rebounds to lead North Carolina to a 73-64 win at Miami. (2/28)
“Brice was huge for us,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “He was the exact opposite of last Tuesday (when the Tar Heels lost to NC State). We need him to play like that for us.”
The game was tied at 50 with just 8:30 left when UNC freshman Joel Berry buried a three for his only points of the game. Miami, which had taken a lead at 48-47 for the first time since it was 4-2, never tied or led again.
The Berry bucket started a 15-4 UNC run that put the Tar Heels in control at 65-54 with just 1:45 to go.
During the run, Johnson scored six points, four on dunks while Marcus Paige sank a falling down jumper at the end of the shot clock after the Heels burned time.
Over the last 1:45, Carolina hit 10 of 11 free throws, six of which came from Justin Jackson, to wrap it up.
In the first half, the Tar Heels led by as many as nine points, after a Paige three made it 20-11, but they had to settle for a 32-30 halftime lead.
“I was really pleased with the guys but we made some mistakes late in the first half,” Coach Williams said, adding that the team listened at halftime. “I thought we were pretty doggone good in the second half.”
Besides Johnson, the other Tar Heels in double figures were Paige (17 points), Jackson (11 points) and JP Tokoto (10 points and 10 rebounds).
Tokoto also had six assists and four steals, two of which that ended in his slamming down dunks.
Sheldon McClellan and Ivan Cruz Uceda led Miami, now 18-11 and 8-8 in the league, with 11 points each. It was a career high for Uceda, who hit three triples including back-to-back ones that gave the Hurricanes a brief lead.
The Tar Heels, who play at Georgia Tech Tuesday, improve to 20-9 overall and 10-6 in the ACC.