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Off the cuff: The UNC game against Davidson will probably be the least viewed Tar Heels basketball game of the season. Time Warner Cable had the rights to it and showed it on an upper level digital channel. Many sports bars couldn't even get it.

Carolina, with just too many weapons - especially inside, handled a good Wildcat team.

Tar Heels 90, Davidson 72
Heels' big men outduel Wildcat shooters

North Carolina's big men outscored Davidson's feared three-point shooters for a 90-72 victory in Charlotte. (11/22)

The two teams seemed evenly matched early on before the Tar Heels reeled off five points - three on a Theo Pinson three - to earn their first double-digit lead of the game at 36-25.

The Tar Heels led 46-34 at the half with 6-foot-9 Brice Johnson leading the way with nine points. But Johnson picked up four fouls in the second half, fouling out with just those nine points.

Kennedy Meeks and Justin Jackson picked up the slack in the second half, finishing with 19 and 18 points respectively. But it was the defense that UNC coach Roy Williams focused on after the game.

"They were a difficult matchup for us," he said. "Defensively, it was our best game of the year."

Carolina players blocked nine shots and held the Wildcats to just 11 of 36 from beyond the three-point line.

Jackson, who scored 13 of his 18 in the second half, said, "They love to shoot threes so our biggest emphasis was to not help on the drive but get out to cover the perimeter instead and I think we did a pretty good job."

After Davidson cut a 14-point UNC lead to just eight after a pair of threes, Johnson picked up his fourth foul but Carolina reeled off seven straight points.

Then Jackson scored six of the Tar Heels' next eight points, including a transition 12-foot swish that gave Carolina its largest lead to that point at 63-47.

A Meeks fastbreak dunk put the Heels up 79-60 with just four minutes to play. A minute later, JP Tokoto provided the highlight reel of the game with a one-handed alley oop dunk that gave Carolina its largest lead of the game, 24, at 88-64.

Marcus Paige scored 13 while Tokoto added 10 to join Meeks and Jackson as the four Tar Heels scoring in double figures.

The Tar Heels, now 3-0, travel to the Bahamas to play Butler in the first game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Wednesday at 12 noon.

Boxscore


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