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UNC beats Georgia Tech by 32

Mar 4, 2015 - 6:50 AM Atlanta, GA (SportsNetwork.com) - Joel Berry II scored 15 points and Justin Jackson added 13 as No. 19 North Carolina coasted to an 81-49 road victory over lowly Georgia Tech on Tuesday.

The Tar Heels (21-9, 11-6 ACC) posted back-to-back wins for the first time in over a month and head into Saturday's home showdown against rival Duke with a head of steam.

Seven UNC players scored at least seven points, and Marcus Paige's career-high six steals highlighted a defense that forced 18 Georgia Tech turnovers.

"I thought we got out of sorts on the offensive end," Yellow Jackets head coach Brian Gregory said. "So many of their points came off of our turnovers."

Charles Mitchell and Demarco Cox scored 16 and 14 points, respectively, to lead the Yellow Jackets (12-18, 3-15), who finished their regular season on a four-game losing skid. They will be one of the bottom three seeds in the ACC Tournament next week.

Hopes of an upset on Senior Night were quickly dashed both by UNC's fast start and by Georgia Tech's leading scorer, Marcus Georges-Hunt, limping off with a right ankle injury before the first media timeout.

Georges-Hunt never returned, and coming out of that initial break, the Tar Heels forced three consecutive turnovers and scored off each in building a 12-5 lead. UNC wound up scoring 21 points off 11 giveaways in the first half and ripped off 11 straight points during one quick stretch. Nate Britt's 3- pointer made it 27-11 with under eight minutes to play, and it was a 39-21 game in the Tar Heels' favor at halftime.

"It's a four or six point game then all of a sudden it's an eighteen point game because they turned it over a couple times," Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams said. "I think that little spurt for us offensively was the most important part of the game for us particularly on the offensive side."

Georgia Tech only turned it over seven times after the break but shot just 28.1 percent from the floor. Its largest deficit was 32.

Game Notes

Paige became the sixth UNC player to make at least 200 3-pointers in his career ... Georgia Tech missed its first 11 3-point attempts before Tadric Jackson made one with under eight minutes to play ... UNC has won six straight meetings and won both this season by a combined 61 points ... North Carolina went 8-4 in true road games ... Georgia Tech went 8-8 at home.