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Off the cuff: That was about as bad a whipping as you'll ever see the Tar Heels take. It's the largest margin of defeat since losing by 40 to Maryland in 2003.

It was a perfect storm with the home town getting out to an early lead, energizing the fans with a slew of three pointers. The Tar Heels turned the ball over four of their first seven times down the court. Carolina's leading scorer (Barnes) and leading assist man (Marshall) each picked up two first-half fouls. Plus, the Tar Heels couldn't shoot from the foul line or the floor.

Coach Roy Williams gave praise to Dulkys for his shooting prowess but he pointed out that Florida State had not been shooting it like that this year and that the Tar Heels left him open too much. Of course, some of those shots came from way out and it normally makes sense to let guys take those shots. Not against Florida State on this day.

Florida State 90, Tar Heels 57
Dulkys, FSU embarrass Tar Heels by 33

If it weren't bad enough to try to withstand a career-high 32-point, eight three-point performance by Deividas Dulkys, North Carolina turned the ball over a season-high 22 times and shot a season-low 37 percent to fall 90-57 at Florida State. (1/14) Click here for a photo gallery.

Dulkys, who averages six points a game, hit only five threes in his last nine games but was on fire from the outset. Midway through the first half, FSU was already up by double figures at 25-15 and Dulkys already had 13 points.

Despite not scoring the last 3:31 of the first half, the Tar Heels held tough the rest of the first half and trailed only 36-28 at the half.

Instead of Carolina making its patented early second-half run, the Seminoles went on a 17-2 run in the first five minutes to bust out to a 53-30 lead. It was only downhill for the Tar Heels from there.

The 33-point loss was the largest for Carolina during the Coach Roy Williams era. "We had no answers for them on the court and I had no answers for them on the sidelines," Coach Williams said, adding that it was his worst job performance.

He said Florida State was more aggressive and beat the Tar Heels in every way. He said the Heels need work in every facit of the game.

Florida State had 12 steals compared to just six for Carolina and shot 44.4 percent from three-point land compared to just 19 percent for Carollina.

The free throw stripe proved to be a factor in getting far behind early. UNC's John Henson missed all seven of his free throws. Had he hit them all, the Tar Heels would have only trailed by one at the half. As a team, Carolina was just nine of 20 from the free throw line.

Kendall Marshall had seven turnovers against only four assists and fouled out late in the game with six points.

Harrison Barnes led UNC in scoring with 15 points but he only hit five of 13 shots from the field. Tyler Zeller was the most consistent Tar Heel as he scored 14 points on a six of eight shooting performance and hauled in 14 rebounds.

The Tar Heels, now 15-3 and 2-1 in the ACC, play at Virginia Tech Thursday night.

Boxscore


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