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North Carolina rolls on without Henson, tops Vermont

Mar 16, 2012 - 11:29 PM Greensboro, NC (Sports Network) - John Henson missed his third straight game due to a sprained left wrist, but James Michael McAdoo started in his place and picked up the slack with 17 points and six rebounds as North Carolina pulled away from Vermont for a 77-58 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tyler Zeller netted 17 points to go with 15 rebounds and four blocks for the Tar Heels (30-5), who are a top seed for an NCAA record 14th time.

They will play eighth-seeded Creighton in the third round of the Midwest Region on Sunday. Kendall Marshall added 11 points and 10 assists and Harrison Barnes poured in 14.

Sandro Carissimo had 11 points while Matt Glass added 10 for the America East Tournament champion Catamounts (24-12), who defeated Lamar in first-round action on Wednesday.

"Real proud of our guys," Vermont head coach John Becker said. "I thought we battled the whole game. We gave everything we had out there. We just needed some more shots to fall and 20 turnovers is too many against a team like North Carolina. But we battled, we left it all out there, we had a great year."

Vermont hung around for the first 13 1/2 minutes before the Tar Heels inexorably stretched their margin.

North Carolina outscored Vermont 20-10 to close the opening stanza and took a 37-25 lead into the locker room. Zeller had 15 points and nine rebounds to pace the Tar Heels.

"The last seven or eight minutes of the first half, we got it up to 12, and then in the second half -- I thought James Michael (McAdoo) was sensational," UNC head coach Roy Williams said.

The Tar Heels' advantage swelled to 23, 60-37, a little past the midway point of the second half as McAdoo netted the first six points of a 12-2 spurt.

UNC led by as many as 27 down the stretch, cruising to the easy win.

Game Notes

The Tar Heels shot 41.5 percent from the floor and 5-of-18 from beyond the arc...UNC recorded 24 points off 20 Vermont turnovers and scored 38 points in the paint...Vermont was also a 16th seed in the 2010 tourney and fell to Syracuse, 79-56.