UNC continues perfect home record as ACC play nears end

When North Carolina last played Duke, it was for first place in the ACC.

After beating Maryland 87-76 Sunday night, the Tar Heels will once again have a chance to beat the Blue Devils for the outright ACC regular season championship.

But the Tar Heels don’t want that thought on their minds — at least, not right now.

“We knew we had a chance to be able to put ourselves in this situation,” forward Tyler Zeller said. “It’s nice to be able to say we have a chance to do that, but at the same time, we’ve got to win Wednesday before we get the chance Saturday.”

UNC plays Florida State on Wednesday before taking on Duke on Saturday, and Sunday’s win against Maryland seems to have put UNC’s offense back on track for another good two-game stretch against FSU and Duke.

UNC’s 87 points against Maryland were the most the Tar Heels have scored since Feb. 6, when North Carolina had 89 points in a win against FSU.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I like scoring 87 a lot better than I like scoring 48,” Williams said. “It gives you a little more heart attacks during the game … but I like that a lot better.”

UNC’s offense got out to a quick start thanks to Harrison Barnes. The freshman made three early 3-pointers and then quickly cooled down, but the lead it gave UNC was never forfeited. Barnes finished the game with 21 points, but it took him a career-high 23 shot attempts to reach that number. Barnes finished the game 9-for-23 from the court.

Even with Barnes attempting and missing so many shots, the Tar Heel offense seemed to run the smoothest with Barnes looking for those shots.

“Throughout the long up-and-down season, I feel like everybody has become more comfortable with each other,” Barnes said. “They know where to find each other. They know who’s going to get what shots and I think as a team, it makes us perform so much better.”

As they have for much of the season, the Tar Heels outpaced their opponent most on defense and on the boards. UNC outrebounded Maryland 49-43.

John Henson finished with 10 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks. But the true driving force to UNC’s offense was Tyler Zeller. Zeller was an efficient 10-for-16 from the floor and finished with 25 points. Zeller’s size was too much for Maryland’s frontcourt to handle.

The junior said it was probably his best performance in the post.

“Especially against (their frontcourt), their bigs are very good bigs,” Zeller said.

“Some of it is our guards, they did a fantastic job getting me the ball in proper position.”

After the early lead, the game never seemed out of the Tar Heels grasp. Maryland cut the lead to single digits more than once, but UNC responded each time with its own run.

Coach Roy Williams was pleased with many aspects of his team’s performance — especially the 18 assists between point guards Kendall Marshall and Dexter Strickland.

UNC was content with the way it handled Maryland, but the team knows it has plenty of room for improvement.

“John played spectacular basketball tonight. Z played spectacular,” Barnes said. “But I feel like Kendall knows he can give us more, Dexter can give us more. Our bench — Reggie (Bullock) and Justin Knox — can give us more, and I can shoot a better percentage.”

If UNC’s offense really gets rolling, 87 points could be on the lower end of UNC’s spectrum.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.