Iowa 60, No. 12 North Carolina 55: Mike Gessell’s three-point play with 1:16 to play put the visiting Hawkeyes ahead to stay as they upended the Tar Heels in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Gessell finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, on a night where defense dominated as Iowa (6-2) shot just 32.7 percent from the field while North Carolina (5-2) hit on 27.9 percent of its attempts. Adam Woodbury added 11 points while Aaron White, Iowa’s leading scorer, missed all six of his shots from the field but went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line as Iowa won its fourth in a row.

Kennedy Meeks scored 15 points with 12 rebounds for North Carolina. Marcus Paige added 13 points, hitting three 3-pointers but shooting 4-of-16 overall and missing a potential game-tying 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining.

Iowa rallied to move ahead 52-51 on Woodbury’s free throw with 3:34 left, but after two free throws by White 30 seconds later pushed the Hawkeyes’ lead to three, Justin Jackson scored on a layup and two Paige free throws made it 55-54 North Carolina with 2:13 to go. Jarrod Uthoff’s free throw 14 seconds later tied the game, and Gessell’s 3-point play with 1:16 remaining provided the winning margin.

The Hawkeyes limited North Carolina to 26.8 percent shooting from the field in the first half and led by as many as eight before the Tar Heels closed the half on a 10-4 spurt, using a pair of J.P. Tokoto free throws with one second remaining to pull within 31-29 at the break. The Tar Heels held Iowa scoreless for nearly five minutes of the second half, using a 9-0 run to take a 45-40 lead on two Tokoto free throws with 10 minutes to play.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Uthoff finished with eight points on 2-of-13 shooting, but tied career highs with 11 rebounds and five blocked shots. … North Carolina dropped to 86-4 in non-conference home games under coach Roy Williams. … Meeks recorded his fifth double-digit rebounding game of the season and his fourth double-double.