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Off the cuff: Did you ever see the Hee Haw routine where Archie Campbell would tell a story and something that seemed bad was good and vice versa. "That's good," Roy Clark would say. "No, that's bad," Campbell would say explaining himself. And then when Clark would say, "That's bad," Campbell would say "No, that's good."

That's how I felt after watching the Tar Heels beat Pittsburgh. UNC coach Roy Williams would praise McAdoo and Paige and you'd think that's good. "No, that's bad," Williams might say.

"We've got to get some other guys to step up and make shots. That's the bottom line. Other guys have to step up and help," Williams did say.

Williams started out his news conference saying, "Well I feel very good right now."

That'd good. No, that's bad. "Not good about the way we played the last couple of minutes, or really the second half," Williiams said. "I thought we had some really silly turnovers and missed opportunities there."

That's bad. No, that's good. "We made some big plays. Marcus made some big threes in the second half," Williams said. "Every time they would make a little run, we'd make a couple baskets ourselves."

That's good. I think.

Tar Heels 75, Pittsburgh 71
Paige outside, McAdoo inside carry UNC

North Carolina worked up a 12-point lead via the outside shooting of Marcus Paige and inside play of James Michael McAdoo and held on for a 75-71 home win over Pittsburgh. (2/15)

"It's a big win over a very good basketball team," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "I'm glad I don't have to go to Pittsburgh this year. They're awfully good but we made some big plays."

The Tar Heels' sixth straight victory didn't come easy against the physical Panthers, who held a seven-point lead midway through the first half and cut a 12-point deficit to two in the second half.

Carolina, who fell behind 20-13, rallied and tied it at 27 on a McAdoo steal and dunk with 5:40 left in the half. Isiah Hicks dunked over a defender on a fastbreak to give the Heels their first lead since it was 9-8.

A Paige four-point play - he was fouled on a three-point shot - helped the Heels to a 35-31 halftime lead.

Three more three pointers by Paige over a six-minute period in the second half helped the Heels up the lead to double figures at 56-46.

An old-fashioned three-point play by Brice Johnson on a feed by Hicks gave the Heels their largest lead of the game at 61-49 with 8:50 to play in the game.

A 12-2 Pitt run cut it to 63-61 with less than five minutes to play, setting up a wild finish.

A pair of McAdoo jumpers in the lane kept the Heels ahead but free throw woes by the Heels once again made a game close.

After five straight misses, with 3:01 to play Leslie McDonald hit one of two free throws and then Brice Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one 20 seconds later.

Johnson made up for it with a big block on a shot that looked like it would have gone in and with 54 seconds to play he canned a pair of free throws that put the Heels up 72-65.

It was not over though as Pitt's Lamar Patterson scored and drew a late foul call on McAdoo to cut it to 72-68 with 44 seconds left.

Paige drained a pair of free throws to put the Heels up 74-68. Another Johnson seemingly put a cap on the game but McAdoo fouled out trying to save the ball from going out of bounds.

Pitt's Jamel Artis hit both free throws and the Panthers were within four with 25 seconds left. Then Pitt stole the inbounds pass from Tokoto and Artis was fouled, this time hitting one of two free throws cutting it to 74-71. The second-shot rebound went out of bounds off UNC's Kennedy Meeks. Officials originally gave the ball to Carolina but called time to check the replay.

Patterson missed a contested layup and UNC's Jackson Simmons fought for the rebound but had a foot out of bounds.

"There was weird stuff going on out there," Williams said. "I felt like I was in the '72 Olympics."

Patterson then missed an open three and seconds later UNC's Johnson was fouled with 2.8 seconds left. He hit the second of two free throws to wrap it up.

McAdoo finished with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds while Paige scored 18 with all five of his field goals coming beyond the arc. Johnson added 13 points and five blocked shots.

The Tar Heels, coming off a long layoff caused by the Duke game weather postponement, improves to 17-7 overall and 7-4 in the ACC. Pitt falls to 20-6 and 8-5 in the league.

UNC travels to Florida State Monday night before hosting Duke Thursday at 9 p.m.

Boxscore

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