bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
CHAPEL HILL -- N.C. Central kept things interesting for the first 7:35 of Wednesday's game against North Carolina.
The Eagles used a zone defense to slow down the Tar Heels' talented big men and made back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the lead to two points.
But that would be as close as the NCCU would get in its first regular season trip to the Smith Center.
No. 6 UNC went on a 32-3 run over the final 12:17 of the first half and coasted in the second for an 89-42 victory and a 2-0 start to its season.
"We came here to win a game; there's no moral victories," first-year NCCU coach LeVelle Moton said. "We're not happy that we played close the first 10 minutes. We came here to win a game."
Overall, the Tar Heels looked much more crisp than in their season-opening victory over Florida International on Monday, and Coach Roy Williams was much happier with Wednesday's win. After turning the ball over 26 times against FIU, the Tar Heels turned the ball over just 19 times against the Eagles.
Senior Marcus Ginyard tied his career-high with 17 points to lead the Tar Heels, and big men Deon Thompson and Tyler Zeller added 13 and 12 points, respectively. No other player finished in double figures, but 12 of the 16 players who got into the game scored.
In was the second of the Tar Heels' two home games in the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Coaches Classic, and they travel to Madison Square Garden next week to face No. 16 Ohio State and either No. 13 California or Syracuse in the championship rounds.
"For the most part, I was much more pleased than I was the other night," Williams said. "I thought we were more attentive. We are just so much bigger than LeVelle's team."
The Tar Heels outrebounded the Eagles -- whose tallest player stands 6-8 -- 46-24 and had 46 points in the paint. UNC scored 13 points off 13 offensive rebounds, and Williams said it looked like his team was playing volleyball near the basket at times.
"We're just so much more gifted and particularly so much bigger than they are [that] it was tough to maintain concentration for the kids," Williams said. "They kept wanting to look at the score because they're young, and I keep trying to tell them not to look at the score and just play the game."
UNC jumped to an early seven-point lead at the start of the game, but pesky NCCU stuck around. The Eagles' Vincent Davis hit a 3-pointer with 12:25 to play to cut the Tar Heels' lead to 19-17. But then a John Henson layup kick-started a 21-0 run by the Tar Heels, with eight of Ginyard's point coming during that stretch.
NCCU scored just one bucket the rest of the first half -- a Dwayne Sims 3-pointer to put the score at 40-20. UNC then used an 11-0 run to take a 51-20 lead into the break.
"They are who we thought they were, for sure," Moton said.
Junior guard C.J. Wilkerson led the Eagles (0-1) with 16 points in 38 minutes and was the only NCCU player to finish in double figures.
Moton said UNC's size and depth eventually wore the Eagles down, but the game was a learning experience for a program that is entering its third-season on the Division I level. NCCU was down by as many as 52 in the second half and scored just 22 points in the second period.
"It was a humbling experience for those guys," Moton said. "Make no mistake about it, North Carolina has really been the blueprint of college basketball."
