Before North Carolina's game against Boston College on Saturday, the Tar Heels were favored to win by as many as 26 points. The prediction turned out to be spot on.
UNC won by 27 points, 89-62, moving the team to 8-0 in the ACC and giving the Tar Heels a two-game lead in the ACC standings entering Monday's contest at Louisville.
Senior Brice Johnson led the team with 17 points and 11 rebounds for his 12th double double of the season. Senior Marcus Paige also shook off a four-game shooting slump with 12 points, including three made 3-pointers.
Although UNC actually trailed at one point early in the first half, the Tar Heels quickly took control of the game, aided by an abundance of turnovers by Boston College.
Those giveaways helped UNC overcome its 0-for-8 start from the free throw line, where The Tar Heels ultimately finished 11-for-22 from.
The game is the final one before UNC begins the tough portion of its schedule, with six of the remaining 10 games against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25.
Quotable
"If we play the way we played the last four games, it will be very, very, very difficult to win any of those games. So we've got to play better, and we talked about that. Even before the game today, instead of putting up some X's and O's up on the board, I said, 'Let's play to get better on defense, let's play to get better on offense and let's give the grade-A effort and see if we are mature enough to handle this.'" — Coach Roy Williams on the team's mindset going into the tough portion of the schedule.
