Michigan State made a late run to cut a 16-point UNC lead down to six but, but couldn't come any closer as North Carolina defeated MSU 89-82.
Carolina's 1-2 punch of Ed Davis and Deon Thompson
scored the Tar Heels first six points and fouled out MSU's two best big men, Delvon Roe and Draymond Green. But it was the guard play, where Michigan State was supposed to have an advantage, that proved to be the difference.
UNC's trio of Larry Drew (18), Dexter Strickland (9, 8 in first half ) Marcus Ginyard (9) and Will Graves (5) combined for 41 points, igniting a racous "Dean Dome" crowd into a near frenzy.
In contrast MSU only got a brief lift from the streaky
Korie Lucious (6) and Chris Allen (4) but Durrell Summer scored 14 second half points and
All-American candidate Kalin Lucas shook off a poor first half performance (1-of-7 and 1-of-2
free throw line, 3 points) to notch 15 but were still outscored by Carolina's group.
MSU got a solid outing from Raymar Morgan who showed some flashes of senior leadership, scoring 18 points and grabbing six rebounds, but turned it over five times.
Draymond Green did an excellent job slowing Carolina's bigs in the second half before fouling out, but competed in a major way, scoring 13 points getting two assists and two steals against no turnovers.
MSU (5-2) will drop again in the polls, this time out of the Top Ten. They heads home to lick their wounds with a five-game stretch that should pad their win-loss record, but they have yet another marquee matchup in two weeks against #2 Texas.