North Carolina overwhelmed N.C. State with height and a smothering defense Thursday night at the Smith Center and stormed to an 11th consecutive victory against its nearby rival.
The Tar Heels won 74-55 in a game that was never in doubt after halftime. North Carolina disrupted almost every aspect of N.C. State's play in the first half and led 37-23 at the break.
Behind Tyler Zeller's scoring near the basket and his rebounding, and John Henson's five blocked shots and 10 rebounds, the Tar Heels roared to a 63-32 lead with 10:52 left.
North Carolina, playing for the first time without Dexter Strickland, a guard out for the season because of a knee injury, wanted to leave nothing to chance against an improved opponent that had won four of its first five ACC games.
"It's not Carolina-Duke, but we definitely wanted to go out there and show them that this is our court and this is what we do," said forward Harrison Barnes of the Tar Heels.
Zeller, a 7-footer, and Henson, who is 6-11, made scoring near the basket difficult for the Wolfpack. C.J. Williams said his team was not intimidated by the Tar Heels' height, but many of the Wolfpack's shots were rushed because Henson and Zeller were nearby, and the quick attempts almost always were off target.
N.C. State was held to a season low in points. The Wolfpack shot a season-low 36.8 percent from the field. North Carolina held a 48-26 rebounding advantage and limited N.C. State to six offensive rebounds.
"They got after us defensively, and we got a little flustered," Williams said.
"We didn't play with poise like we had for the first 20 games of the season. They took us out of what we wanted to do."
The lead was only 17-14 when the Tar Heels clamped down. The Wolfpack made only three of its last 20 shots of the first half. One was a tip-in of a miss, and another was an 80-foot heave by Lorenzo Brown at the buzzer for a 3-point basket.
N.C. State shot 25 percent from the field in the first half. Scott Wood, a Wolfpack forward, saw his team grow more frustrated with every missed shot, every North Carolina rebound and every Henson block.
"For me it felt like luck," Wood said. "When something went well for us, it was almost a little bit of luck. It definitely stings. It stings bad."
North Carolina made sure after halftime that N.C. State wouldn't make a comeback. A 12-0 scoring run, helped by five missed N.C. State shots, produced a 31-point lead.
The Tar Heels made 10 of their first 16 shots after halftime. They made 13 of their first 20, which helped them carry a 72-46 lead into the final 6:41.
Zeller led North Carolina with 21 points and 17 rebounds, a career high. Barnes scored 15 points and Reggie Bullock, starting his first game after taking Strickland's position, finished with 11 points and made three 3-point baskets.
Guard Kendall Marshall, who finished with 11 assists, said Zeller was the player who started the Tar Heels' dominating play.
"I'm starting to see a little bit of an animal in Zee," Marshall said. "Last year the knock on him was that he was finesse and he wanted to shoot jump hooks.
"Now you see him finishing at the rim and chasing down rebounds."
Wood led N.C. State with 11 points, all in the second half. Bullock defended him for most of the game, and tight pressure gave him few open looks and prevented him from running off screens repeatedly to launch shots.
"We tried to just come together as a team," Barnes said. "We tried to all pitch in for Dexter and help out. It started on defense. We all made a conscientious effort to contribute defensively."
North Carolina improved to 17-3 overall and 4-1 in the ACC. It beat N.C. State for the 17th time in 18 games. N.C. State fell to 15-6 and 4-2.
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