Tar Heels pound UNCA

CHAPEL HILL — The highlight of this game the last couple of seasons had been watching 7-feet-7 UNC Asheville center Kenny George make everyone — including North Carolina All American Tyler Hansbrough — look downright small.
 
But with both big men sidelined during the top-ranked Tar Heels’ 116-48 blowout Sunday night, the fun part for Carolina fan was viewing point guard Ty Lawson make everyone else look downright slow.
 
Just off his MVP performance in the Maui Invitational, the junior was a blur yet again, speeding to 22 points and eight assists before taking a seat with 10 minutes to go.
 
Danny Green also chipped in 18 points, all on 3-pointers and all in the second half.

It marked the Tar Heels’ largest margin of victory under coach Roy Williams; the previous was when UNC beat Cleveland State  112-55 at the beginning of the 2005-06 season.

The Bulldogs opened the game with a 6-2 lead, but  the Tar Heels switched to a tiny lineup — with 6-foot-6 Green playing center,  6-6 Will Graves playing power forward and 6-3 Bobby Frasor playing small forward — and UNC ripped off a 13-1 run to take control before the bigger guys came back in.

Graves had seven points during that run; then Lawson chipped in six. He had 14 by halftime, when UNC led 53-19.
 
Hansbrough was in uniform, but sat out his fourth game of the season in order to rest a stress reaction in his right shin and soreness in his left ankle.

George, meanwhile, was at home in Chicago after recently being released from a three-month stay in the hospital; the senior had part of his right foot amputated as a result of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.