Tar Heels take down No. 1 Spartans

Associated Press

EAST LANSING, Mich. — North Carolina flashed its potential again, earning another impressive victory after a second shaky setback.

J.P. Tokoto had 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds to help the Tar Heels beat No. 1 Michigan State 79-65 Wednesday night.

North Carolina (5-2) has been talented enough to knock off the top-ranked Spartans and then-No. 3 Louisville this season, but the Tar Heels have also lost to Belmont and UAB.

“I truly believe after the Louisville win, our mentality after that was, ‘Birmingham is just going to be an automatic win. Just because we’re North Carolina,’” Tokoto said. “We can’t have that mentality — and kind of learned that Sunday night.

“We came here, were ready to play, intensity level was up, and we got results.”

The Spartans (7-1) lost to an unranked nonconference team at home for the first time in more than a decade. They looked nothing like the team that beat then-No. 1 Kentucky a few weeks ago or the program that has had so much success over nearly two decades under coach Tom Izzo.

“One of the more disappointing performances of my career here,” Izzo said. “From the jump ball, they kind of took it to us.”

The Tar Heels took control from the start, never trailed and used a 12-1 run to take a 65-52 lead with 6:02 left.

“Michigan State did not want it that much more than we did,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Izzo agreed.

“We looked soft,” he lamented.

North Carolina outrebounded the Spartans by 11, leading to 19 second-chance points. The Tar Heels turned 14 of Michigan State’s turnovers into 19 points and held the Spartans to 36 percent shooting.

“We’re as happy as we can possibly be — 179 degrees away from where we were after the UAB game,” Williams said.

Kennedy Meeks scored 15 points for North Carolina and Brice Johnson had 14 off the bench. Marcus Paige and Nate Britt added 13 apiece.

“You can’t tell in college basketball what’s going to happen,” Williams said. “At one point, we had three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior on the court.”

Gary Harris had 17 points and Keith Appling scored 13, but both Michigan State guards missed 10 of 15 shots. Adreian Payne had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Spartans, whose last loss at home against an unranked nonconference team was Toledo on Dec. 30, 2002.

The Tar Heels beat a No. 1 team for the first time since March 4, 2006, at Duke, and they have a nation-high 13 wins over top-ranked teams. They’ve won seven straight against the Spartans, including in the 2009 NCAA final.

Tokoto has taken advantage of an expanded role while P.J. Hairston and Leslie McDonald sit out because of NCAA eligibility concerns.

The 6-foot-5 Tokoto, who is from Wisconsin, made some friends and family members in the stands at the Breslin Center happy while green-and-white clad fans didn’t have much to get excited about.

Tokoto blocked a shot early in the second half, got to a loose ball and threw it to Appling — while the Michigan State player was standing out of bounds — and made three straight shots later in the half to help the Tar Heels pull away.

“J.P. was really active,” Williams said. “He did a lot of things. He’s so athletic.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — LaQuinton Ross scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, hitting his first four 3-pointers, to send Ohio State to an early lead against Maryland in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Sam Thompson added 14 points, including four rim-rattling dunks, and Lenzelle Smith Jr. had 12. Aaron Craft created havoc on defense and chipped in with 10 points as the Buckeyes (7-0) controlled the game at both ends.

Ex-Xavier guard Dez Wells had 19 points, former Michigan swingman Evan Smotrycz scored 15 and Charles Mitchell added 12 points and 11 rebounds for Maryland (5-3), which had won four in a row after losing two of its first three.

This is Maryland’s last ACC/Big Ten Challenge — well, at least as an ACC team. Next year, the Terrapins join the Buckeyes in the new 14-team Big Ten.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Montrezl Harrell scored 14 points to lead five Louisville players in double figures as the Cardinals routed Missouri-Kansas City.

Facing first-year Kangaroos coach Kareem Richardson, Louisville reminded the former Cardinals assistant what he left behind to take the UMKC job. Though less dominant on offense than in last December’s 99-47 victory over the Kangaroos, the Cardinals (7-1) controlled the game throughout and steadily pulled away in the second half.

They manhandled UMKC 44-24 in the paint, forced 20 turnovers that led to 29 points and outrebounded the Kangaroos 49-29, grabbing 22 on the offensive end.

Chane Behanan came off the bench to score 11 points and grab 11 rebounds. Chris Jones, Russ Smith and Luke Hancock each added 10 points and combined for five of Louisville’s 10 3-pointers.

Nelson Kirksey and Martez Harrison had 14 points apiece for UMKC (1-6).

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Josh Gasser scored 11 points and Wisconsin won a defensive struggle against Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, giving coach Bo Ryan his 300th victory with the Badgers.

The Badgers (9-0) extended their best start since opening 11-0 in 1993-94. They limited Virginia to 23 percent shooting (11 for 47), including a stretch of nearly 22 minutes spanning halftime in which the Cavaliers managed just three field goals.

Wisconsin won going away despite shooting only 29 percent (15 for 52).

London Perrantes led Virginia (7-2) with eight points. Joe Harris, the Cavaliers’ leading scorer, finished 1 for 10 from the field with two points.

VILLANOVA, Pa. — Darrun Hilliard scored 19 points and James Bell had 14 to lead Villanova over Penn.

JayVaughn Pinkston added 13 points and the Wildcats (8-0) overcame a 7:29 scoreless stretch to open the second half, winning their first game as a ranked team in almost two years.

The Wildcats catapulted from unranked to 14th this week, the first time they cracked the Top 25 since they were No. 19 in the Feb. 28, 2011, poll. Within a span of about 24 hours, Villanova defeated No. 2 Kansas and No. 23 Iowa to win the Battle 4 Atlantis last weekend in the Bahamas.

Miles Jackson-Cartwright led Penn (2-5) with 17 points. Villanova beat the Quakers for the 11th straight time.

DAYTON, Ohio — Matt Kavanaugh scored 11 points and Dayton overcame a sluggish first half, poor free throw shooting and a late slump to defeat Delaware State.

Dayton (7-1) finally found some rhythm in the slow-paced game with a 14-2 run that pushed its lead to 50-30 with 7:51 to play. Delaware State (2-6) responded with consecutive 3-pointers by Tyshawn Bell to spark a 9-0 run. The Hornets cut the lead to 54-46 with 1:32 left before Dayton finished it off.

Dayton played its first game as a ranked team since 2009 and looked jet-lagged from its trip to the Maui Invitational last week. It was the Flyers’ first game back home since a third-place finish in Maui, and it was that tournament performance that elevated them into the Top 25.

Michigan State pulled into a 32-all tie at halftime after an awful start, struggling to take care of the ball or make shots.

The Tar Heels scored the first six points of the game and led 16-4 while holding the Spartans to 1-of-7 shooting with four turnovers.

On the bench, North Carolina freshman Isaiah Hicks implored his teammates to keep playing and avoid looking at the scoreboard. The Tar Heels seemed to do that, building a 20-6 cushion midway through the first half as Michigan State missed nine of 11 shots and turned the ball over six times.

The Spartans got a scare later in the half when Appling landed hard on his right hip after defending a shot. He hobbled off the court, but was able to return to action before halftime.

Michigan State outscored the Tar Heels 13-2 over the last several minutes of the first half.

The Spartans, though, couldn’t do enough to get ahead in the second half and they will likely fall in next week’s poll after being No. 1 for a school-record three weeks this season.

“They came off a loss and they looked hungrier,” Izzo said. “We came off all the hype and we looked not as hungry.”