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No. 19 North Carolina cruises past UNC-Wilmington

Jan 1, 2014 - 4:32 AM Chapel Hill, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - James Michael McAdoo had a game-high 23 points as the 19th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks, 84-51, at Smith Center.

McAdoo also contributed 10 rebounds, while Marcus Paige tallied 15 points. Brice Johnson and Leslie McDonald both had 14 points off the bench as the Tar Heels (10-3) won their third straight and picked up their 2,100 win in program history.

"Yeah, you definitely do get energized. Just to hear the crowd and getting easy baskets like that - highlights, I guess you can call them [that]. I definitely think it helps us energize ourselves and the crowd," said McAdoo on the dunks in the second half.

Cedrick Williams paced the Seahawks (6-9) with 18 points and nine rebounds. Chris Dixon had 12 points off the bench in UNC-Wilmington's fourth straight loss.

"When you turn the ball over it's hard to get back on defense and transition to stop the dunks and everything," said UNC-Wilmington head coach Buzz Peterson. "Carolina is a top-20 program, they're a very good basketball team and if you make mistakes like that then they will make you pay."

The Tar Heels only led by 8 at halftime, but outscored the Seahawks 53-28 in the final frame.

UNC went on a 12-2 run to start off the second half. Nate Britt drove through the lane and dished a pass to McAdoo for the dunk at 18:14 and J.P. Tokoto raced down the left side to catch an alley-oop, making it a 41-25 game nearly four minutes into the half.

McAdoo bounced a pass to Tokoto, who stretched over a defender for the dunk at 8:36 and 21 seconds later, McAdoo took a nice pass from Britt to finish with a commanding slam for a 61-37 lead which was part of an 11-0 run for the Tar Heels.

Johnson scored seven straight points for the Tar Heels in the midst of a 12-4 run that was capped off with a jumper to make it 78-45 with 4:10 remaining.

Williams hit a trey to cut the deficit to 7-5 at 13:26 of the first and keep the Seahawks in the contest after cold shooting early on. Isaiah Hicks would answer with a three of his own to allow the Tar Heels to maintain a 5-point lead at 12:32.

After Williams converted on a 3-point play to cut the Tar Heels lead down to seven points, Brice Johnson came through with a slam to make it 25-16 in favor of UNC with 2:59 left in the half.

Dixon hit a 3 to cap a 7-0 run for UNCW to end the half, cutting the Tar Heels lead to 31-23.

Game Notes

The Tar Heels lead the all-time series, 3-0. The last meeting between the two programs was a 96-75 win for UNC on Dec. 28, 2004 in Chapel Hill ... This was only the second time in program history that the Tar Heels wore their blue jerseys at the Smith Center ...UNC shot 52.3 percent from the field, while UNC-Wilmington shot 31.1 percent.