A full spark is still missing at North Carolina, but it wasn't a critical absent ingredient on Tuesday night against outmanned Evansville at the Smith Center.
Overpowering inside behind a tall front line, and applying disruptive defensive pressure, North Carolina roared to a 97-48 victory to start putting Saturday's one-point loss at top-ranked Kentucky behind it.
Getting two early breakaway dunks by Dexter Strickland, both after Evansville turnovers, North Carolina took a 52-22 halftime lead. The lead reached 51 points, at 89-38, on a basket by Jackson Simmons, a freshman reserve forward, with 4:47 left.
Coach Roy Williams thought the Tar Heels were deeper and more talented, but he considered the game helpful for his team, which started the season ranked No. 1 in the national polls but had lost twice in its last three games.
Williams wrote a short message to the players on a blackboard in the North Carolina locker room before pregame warm-ups: No plays off.
"I thought our kids had great focus," Williams said. "If we had that kind of focus for 40 minutes a couple of other times this year it would have helped us out a great deal. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I really thought our kids were focused."
The Tar Heels improved to 7-2 in the first game of a nine-game homestand. The Purple Aces fell to 3-4.
Harrison Barnes led North Carolina with 17 points, and Reggie Bullock added 15 off the bench behind four 3-point baskets. John Henson had 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Tyler Zeller had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Denver Holmes led the Purple Aces with 14 points.
Zeller fell one point shy of reaching 1,000 for his career and becoming the 64th Tar Heels player to reach the milestone. Zeller laughed in frustration and said he knew that he stood on 999 points when he left the game for good.
"The shot I had that hung on the rim forever tempted me, and then it rolled out," Zeller said. "It was kind of disappointing. Coach told me he has confidence that I'll score one more bucket this year, though."
P.J. Hairston, a freshman shooting guard, suffered what appeared to be a slight injury late in the game when he turned his right ankle. Williams said the early diagnosis by team trainer Chris Hirth was a moderate sprain.
Late in the first half, North Carolina led 37-17 and Williams changed his lineup. With 4:23 left North Carolina was playing four freshmen — Hairston, James Michael McAdoo, Desmond Hubert and Stilman White — and a sophomore, Bullock.
Two minutes earlier Williams had three freshmen and two sophomores on the court. He said he couldn't recall another game in 23 coaching seasons in which he had four freshmen and a sophomore on the floor late in the first half.
"I wanted to get James Michael, Stilman and Desmond, particularly those three, some more quality time," Williams said. "I would have gotten P.J. a few more minutes if he hadn't gotten hurt."
Kendall Marshall played 25 minutes, the most for any Tar Heels player. No other player was in the game for more than 22 minutes, which Dexter Strickland found refreshing after three close decisions in the previous three games, all of which were fights to the finish.
"We could sit back and watch and get a chance to rest our legs," Strickland said. "We've been going hard. We went hard in practice yesterday. It was big for us to get a lead like we did tonight and get a W."
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