North Carolina jumped out to a big lead, using a stingy defense and buckets around the baskets, and went on to an easy 79-56 over UNC-Greensboro at Greensboro Coliseum. (12/16)

"We played well early," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "We made too many turnovers (17)."

He praised the play of Carolina big men Kennedy Meeks, who went eight of nine for 18 points, and Joel James, who scored a career-tying 11 points.

On the other hand, UNC's top player Marcus Paige had a rough nice shooting, hitting just one of eight from the floor including zero of five from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Tar Heels managed to hit 49 percent from the floor and held the Spartans to just 34 percent, including just 28 percent in the first half. Carolina also owned the backboards - 51 rebounds (20 on the offensive end) to just 25 rebounds for UNC-G.

Carolina gave up only four points in the first 10 minutes and held a 40-19 lead at the half.

In the second half the Tar Heels got the lead over 30 when Theo Pinson sank a three from the left side and Meeks followed it up with a dunk off a nice pass from Nate Britt to make it 59-28.

The largest lead was 32 when Brice Johnson slammed home a follow to make it 65-33 with 8:30 left.

"There's not a lot to say," Coach Williams said during a fairly quick post-game news conference. "We scored more points than they did."

UNC-G, now 4-7, is coached by former Tar Heel player Wes Miller.

The Tar Heels, now 7-3, play at Chicago against highly ranked Ohio State Saturday at 1 p.m.

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