After racing out to an 11-2 lead, North Carolina seemed to hit a brick wall at Miami. The Hurricanes, behind Bruce Brown’s 30 points, went on a 33-7 run and rolled by the Tar Heels 77-62.
The Tar Heels, playing 800 miles from home less than two days after its last game, missed 18 of 19 shots as Miami pushed out to a 19-point first half lead – a half where the Tar Heels turned the ball over nine times and was outmuscled in the paint.
Coming out of the locker room with a 39-22 deficit, the Tar Heels could not cut into the lead which got as high as 22 points in the second half. Carolina made a run late, cutting a 19-point deficit to 11 after a Justin Jackson three from the corner with 2:25 to go.
But it never got closer as Miami had answers down the stretch.
“That was a big time kicking of our rear ends is what it was,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “They were much more aggressive… they were quicker to every loose ball.”
He added that Brown was tremendous for Miami. He said the Heels couldn’t keep him from getting to the basket, and whenever they did, he’d kick it out for a three. Brown hit 10 free throws to go with his four three-point buckets and four two-point buckets.
On the other side, UNC’s guard – Joel Berry – couldn’t get it going and also drew the ire of Coach Williams after Berry picked up a technical for something the ref heard him say. The coach angrily got in Berry’s face during the timeout and threw a chair to the floor.
Berry was 0 for 8 from the floor, including 0 for 4 from the three-point stripe, and finished with just two free throws.
Hardly any Tar Heels shot well, especially in the first half when Carolina shot a season-low for a half at 20.7 percent.
Jackson led UNC with 21 points but he hit only seven of 16 shots and turned the ball over four times. Nate Britt, off the bench, was the only other Tar Heel in double figures with 10.
Carolina, at 19-4 and 7-2, remained in first place as second-place teams Notre Dame and Florida State each also lost Saturday.
Miami improves to 14-6 and 4-4 in the league.
The Tar Heels try to get back on track against last-place Pittsburgh at home Tuesday night.
For a box score and more commentary on the game, please click here.