CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For once, North Carolina didn’t have to do things the hard way.
The Tar Heels took care of SMU 82-67 on Tuesday night in ACC basketball at the Smith Center, producing their largest margin of victory against a major-conference opponent this season.
RJ Davis supplied 26 points, five rebounds and four assists as UNC turned this return home into a mostly stress-free experience, particularly compared to the dramatic ending three days earlier, when Elliot Cadeau’s four-point play rescued the Tar Heels in the dying seconds at Notre Dame.
But no such anxiety was required on this night. The ACC charter member Tar Heels, playing their 1,075th all-time regular-season game in the league, breezed past the ACC newcomer Mustangs, playing their fourth all-time game in the league.
What an early indoctrination out of the ACC gate for SMU. Three days ago, Duke decked the Mustangs 89-62 in Dallas. UNC built a 39-24 lead by halftime here on Tuesday night, and expanded the margin to 63-38 about 7½ minutes into the second half.
Ian Jackson scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Drake Powell added 17 points for the Tar Heels (10-6 overall, 3-1 ACC), who have won four of their last five games. UNC guard Seth Trimble returned to action and came off the bench, after missing the last three games due to an upper-body injury.
Chuck Harris (18 points) and B.J. Edwards (15 points) topped the contributions for SMU (11-4, 2-2). Wake Forest transfer Boopie Miller, the Mustangs’ best scorer on the season, struggled to nine points on 3-for-15 shooting from the field.
Tar Heels hot from 3, tough on the glass in first half
Carolina built a 39-24 lead by halftime, and its 7-for-12 shooting beyond the arc registered as practically blistering, considering that the Tar Heels entered Tuesday night connecting on just 31.4 percent of their 3-point attempts this season.
SMU’s 24 points marked the fewest allowed by UNC in a first half this season, and the 15-point leading margin for the Tar Heels represented its second-largest lead at halftime this season (UNC led La Salle by 17 at the half). The Mustangs shot just 8-for-32 from the field during the first half.
So things were proceeding along a pleasing path for Carolina, even with Ian Jackson (three points in the first half) experiencing a slower start. Powell pumped in 14 points during the first half and Davis scored 10. They combined on 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point range in the first half.
The Tar Heels were holding their own on the boards by halftime, one of the components fueling their double-digit lead. UNC led 25-19 in rebounding against a SMU team whose plus-eight rebounding margin marked the best among ACC teams. Jackson kept a Trimble miss alive on the offensive glass and found Davis, with his feet set and ready to load up and launch. Davis buried that 3-pointer as the Tar Heels went ahead 33-19.
Earlier, a pretty sequence unfolded in transition with UNC on the run. Powell fed Cadeau for a fastbreak layup. He bounced a pass and Cadeau never used his off hand to gather it, scooping the ball off the bounce with his right hand and flicking it up and in for a racing bucket. That gave Carolina a 27-17 lead about 12½ minutes into the game — already the third 10-point lead for the Tar Heels — and prompted SMU coach Andy Andy Enfield to burn a timeout.
Next on the schedule
UNC plays on Saturday at rival NC State (4 p.m., ACC Network), a nearby road assignment in sure-to-be hostile territory that makes for a rematch of last season’s ACC Tournament championship game, though the casts on both sides have changed. It marks the first of the standard two regular-season meetings between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack. Then, UNC returns to the Smith Center for back-to-back home games next week against California and Stanford, the other ACC newcomers.
NC State plays host to Notre Dame on Wednesday night, seeking to turn things around this week at home. The Wolfpack has dropped three of its last four games, with all of those losses occurring on the road, including defeats suffered last week at Virginia and Wake Forest. UNC leads the all-time series 166-81 against NC State, including 69-48 in overall road games and 19-6 at the Raleigh, N.C., arena that’s now called the Lenovo Center. The Tar Heels have dominated the rivalry for some time, winning 31 of the last 38 meetings. But the Wolfpack won the last matchup, capping its Cinderella run to claim the ACC Tournament crown and unlock a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
