A young Boston College team turned the ball over 23 times while an experienced North Carolina team protected the ball, picking up 12 steals, en route to an 89-62 home win. (1/30)

With Marcus Paige perhaps coming out of a slump, fellow guard Joel Berry has been the steadying force and it proved the same against the Eagles. Berry scored 13 points but perhaps more importantly had six assists and didn't turn the ball over at all.

"I’m just trying to make the simple play," Berry said. "There were a couple of passes I could have made, but I didn’t feel comfortable with them, so I waited for the next play. It’s not always best to try to make the homerun play. You have to value the ball.”

UNC coach Roy Williams praised Berry's overall play. "He’s really just played good basketball," Williams said. "He’s really stepped up and done some good things for us on both ends. He’s been very consistent on the defensive end. But when you have a guard that handles the ball and doesn’t turn it over like that, it’s really important to you.”

A couple of nice assists early helped get the Tar Heels out of a funk that was highlighted by eight straight missed free throws. With 14:08 left in the first half, Berry whipped a pass to Paige who scored and less than a minute later he lobbed an alley oop pass to Brice Johnson who dunked it to tie the game at 11-all.

Berry and Paige hit back-to-back threes to put the Heels up 19-16 midway through the half and the Tar Heels never looked back, working the first-half lead up to 16 before settling for a 41-30 halftime lead.

Paige, who went three games without hitting a three-point shot after getting at least one three in 41 straight games, hit three threes on his way to 12 points.

"It felt good," Paige said. "I was one for four from the free throw line, which is inexcusable on my part, and I kind of started the trend today of bad free throw shooting, but it felt good for me. I got some really good looks, and all of the good looks I got I felt great. I took a couple of bad threes, but you take those away, and I was three for six."

At the start of the second half, it was Berry again setting the tone with a steal and lay in, a jumper and a coast-to-coast layup in the first five minutes as Carolina went up by 20 at 50-30.

The largest lead of the game came late when Theo Pinson, who had missed his previous 11 three-point attempts, canned one to put the Heels up by 27 at 85-58.

UNC's Johnson had yet another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Kennedy Meeks, who played only 15 minutes after being late for practice, was four of five for eight points.

The Tar Heels, now 18-2 and 8-0 in the ACC, play at Louisville Monday at 7 pm on ESPN.

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