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No. 20 Tar Heels edge Tigers

Feb 12, 2011 - 10:55 PM Clemson, SC (Sports Network) - Harrison Barnes scored a game-high 20 points and Kendall Marshall added 18 as 20th-ranked North Carolina edged Clemson, 64-62, at Littlejohn Coliseum.

John Henson supplied 14 points and 12 rebounds while Tyler Zeller provided 10 points and seven boards for the Tar Heels (18-6, 8-2 ACC), who bounced back from Wednesday's loss to arch-rival Duke to win for a sixth time in their last seven contests.

Demontez Stitt scored 17 points and pulled down seven boards and Milton Jennings came off the bench to contribute 15 points and 12 caroms for the Tigers (17-8, 6-5), who had a two-game win streak snapped.

"It was a missed opportunity and I told our guys we should be disappointed," said Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. "We outrebounded them, our defense was good, our energy was good, our rotation was good, our attention to detail was good defensively. When you get to the highest level, to go from being pretty good to really good, you have to be clicking on all cylinders. Offensively, we weren't there today."

Tanner Smith's three-pointer put Clemson ahead 51-50 with 5;28 to go before the Heels embarked on a 9-1 burst to grab a seven-point edge with 40 ticks to play in the game.

Barnes triggered the game-changing run with 1-of-2 at the line and a dunk, combining with Marshall to score all but one point over the near five minute stretch.

Bryan Narcisse canned a triple with 16 seconds left to cut the Carolina lead to 62-59 before Kendall sewed up the victory with two free throws 10 seconds later. Stitt added a bucket with two seconds left for the final margin.

"They wore him out a little with all the guys running at him," North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said of his freshman Marshall. "We didn't do a very good job of attacking that pressure. Their defense had our guys standing still and looking around. We have to do a better job against a pressure defense team."

Kendall's layup gave the visitors a 15-4 edge at the midway point of the first half and the closest Clemson would get over the final 10 minutes was three.

North Carolina grabbed a 28-22 advantage at the intermission despite shooting only 35.7 percent. Clemson, by comparison, fared even worse, making only 27.3 percent of its attempts in the opening 20 minutes.

Game Notes

Carolina finished shooting 37.7 percent while Clemson made only 34.4 percent from the floor...Kendall hit 10-of-11 from the foul line, as Carolina made 22 free throws to only 11 for Clemson...The Tar Heels had only seven assists on 20 made buckets...Clemson was 9-of-29 from three-point territory while the Tar Heels were 2-for-14...North Carolina swept the season series and leads the all-time series, 124-20.