North Carolina came out the gates hot in Wednesday’s matchup at home against Louisville. Despite some second-half struggles early, they were able to stay unbeaten in the ACC with an 86-70 win over the Cardinals.

Hubert Davis’ team shot 48 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from the three-point line in the win. And they did it by jumping out on the Cardinals early.  After the score was tied at 4, the Tar Heels went on a 15-2 run to build a 19-6 lead.

For the entire first half, the Tar Heels had control of the game as they were hitting shots and moving the ball to get those open shots. They also clamped down on the defensive end to force Louisville into tough shots.

And that effort was led by Cormac Ryan who had four three-pointers in that first half.

Louisville stormed back in the second half, making 9 of their first 110 shots to cut the lead down to 58-53. As Louisville got hot, the Tar Heels got cold and sloppy with the basketball.

It felt like UNC settled for shots and sort of lost their rhythm after building up that lead. But when the Tar Heels needed to respond, they did so on the defensive end again.

After Louisville cut that lead down to five, North Carolina got a few big buckets including three free throws by RJ Davis and then a stretch of five-straight points by former Louisville forward Jae’Lyn Withers. The Tar Heels would pull away again, building the lead back out to double digits.

The Cardinals then had a stretch of 4 minutes where they didn’t score before getting a basket at the 1:20 mark. But by then, the Tar Heels had sealed the game and their seventh-straight win.

RJ Davis finished the game with 21 points to lead all scorers while Armando Bacot had 19, Cormac Ryan had 14 and Harrison Ingram added 10 for the starers. Withers came off the bench, recording a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

UNC moves to 14-3 overall and 6-0 in ACC play.

Player of the Game

I’m giving this one to Withers. Going up against his former team, Withers came up big. Not only did he finish with a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds but he made some key plays down the stretch.

Without his effort in that second half, UNC could have found themselves on the wrong end of an upset.

What’s next?

North Carolina heads back on the road to face off against Boston College on Saturday afternoon for a matinee. The game will tip off at 2:15 p.m.

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Story originally appeared on Tarheels Wire