Staff and wire report

CHAPEL HILL -- The North Carolina Tar Heels jumped out to the quick lead they wanted against Radford on Tuesday night at the Smith Center.

Next time, the Tar Heels want to hold it.

Cetera DeGraffenreid scored 15 points and No. 11 North Carolina pulled away in the second half to beat Radford 74-48.

The Tar Heels took control with a 15-3 run to start the second half in a game they had hoped to have under wraps early.

North Carolina opened with a 12-0 run in the game's first five minutes, but the Highlanders answered with a 17-4 spurt to take a 17-16 lead midway through the first half.

"Being a young team, we're learning as we go along," said DeGraffenreid, who had seven assists and six of UNC's season-high 18 steals. "But that's one of the things we need to fix -- finishing something like that. Instead of them going up by one point, it should have been 22 to something. But we'll learn."

Italee Lucas and Waltiea Rolle added 11 points apiece for the Tar Heels (7-1), who overcame a season-high 26 turnovers by shooting a season-best 56.6 percent from the floor.

UNC led 34-29 at halftime despite having more turnovers (15) than field goals (13).

"We were turning the ball over just ridiculous in the first half," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "But I thought we settled down a little bit and played a little bit better in the second half."

Brooke McElroy led Radford (1-6) with 13 points, as the Highlanders which shot 30.8 percent from the field and totaled fewer than 52 points for the sixth time this season.

The Highlanders, who entered the game shooting 17 percent from 3-point range, made 5 of 6 3-point attempts in a span of 2:30 to erase North Carolina's early lead. The Tar Heels answered with a 12-2 run and never trailed again.

"I looked up, and it was 10-0," DeGraffenreid said. "Then all of a sudden, they were up by one point. So I think we backed off of them a little bit instead of going after them like we did the first few minutes."

UNC pulled away in the second half by attacking the smaller Highlanders inside. Radford has no player on its roster taller than 6-1, and the Tar Heels countered with three players standing at least 6-4.

Radford blocked no shots, allowing North Carolina's post players to get comfortable in the lane. The Tar Heels, who made 29 of 45 2-point shots they attempted, finished with a 46-10 advantage on points in the paint. They also outrebounded the Highlanders 43-24.

"We knew their size would give us an issue," Radford coach Tajama Abraham Ngongba said. "I thought in the first half, we did a good job of almost eliminating the size factor on the inside. I think in the second half, their focus became to get the ball inside. Then of course it's going to be a struggle when you're going 5-10 against 6-6."