North Carolina overwhelmed Northern Iowa with a 34-6 run at the beginning of the second half to ease past the Panthers, 91-69, in the Battle 4 Atlantis at Imperial Arena in the Bahamas.

UNC's Cormac Ryan banged in three triples in the first four minutes of the second half to set the tone after Northern Iowa had blistered the nets hitting 60 percent of its shots en route to a six-point lead at the half.

UNC coach Hubert Davis said he challenged his players at halftime to pick it up on both ends of floor. "The change in the second half was 100 percent," Coach Davis said. "Just the energy and the effort defensively."

Ryan, with 15 points, was one of six Tar Heels in double figures. Fellow transfer Harrison Ingram led the way with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double as a Tar Heel.

"We started to find a lot of confidence when Harrison and Cormac were hitting shots, and then we just took it from there," Coach Davis said.

Freshman Elliott Cadeau has a season-high 15 points off bench.

Grad student Jae'Lyn Withers got his season high as well with 11 points. Veterans RJ Davis and Armando Bacot had 13 and 10 points respectively.

At the start, Northern Iowa raced out to a 10-2 lead before Carolina went on a 7-0 run to cut the margin to one. The rest of the half was close but the Panthers held the Tar Heels to no field foals over the last five minutes of the first half to take the six-point halftime lead.

"We were behind in the first half against Radford, and we ended up going into halftime up five," Coach Davis said. "Against Lehigh, they cut it to three and our response was we ended up winning big. And we were down at halftime, and they responded. And so that gives me great confidence as a coach that they can and they will respond."

The Tar Heels, 4-0, plays Villanova, 4-1, on Thanksgiving Day at 2:30 p.m.

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