No. 16 North Carolina 81, North Carolina State 79: Marcus Paige had 23 points, nine assists and four steals and made all five of his 3-point shots as the visiting Tar Heels knocked off the Wolfpack.

Kennedy Meeks had 15 points and 10 rebounds as North Carolina (13-4, 3-1 ACC) defeated North Carolina State for the 17th time in the last 18 meetings. Isaiah Hicks added 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and Brice Johnson had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Tar Heels, who shot 55.6 percent from the field.

Ralston Turner made five 3-pointers while scoring 20 points, Trevor Lacey added 19 points and Kyle Washington scored 17 for the Wolfpack (12-6, 3-2), who defeated then-No. 2 Duke on Sunday. N.C. State trailed by three with 0.2 seconds left, and Abdul-Malik Abu made a free throw before intentionally missing the second one, but Cody Martin’s tip attempt missed as time expired.

Paige buried his fifth 3-pointer with 4:38 to play to make it an 11-point margin in favor of North Carolina, but Turner produced a four-point play with 2:40 left and drained a 3-pointer 27 seconds later to pull N.C. State within 74-71. Turner missed two tying 3-point attempts before Paige hit two free throws with 32.2 seconds remaining, and Anthony “Cat” Barber eventually pulled the Wolfpack within one with 3.9 seconds remaining prior to Nate Britt making two free throws for the Tar Heels with 3.1 seconds to go.

North Carolina closed the first half with a 7-1 run to take a 32-26 lead into the break. The Wolfpack pulled within 48-46 on Washington’s inside hoop, and the margin was again two points before Justin Jackson and J.P. Tokoto each converted three-point plays and Meeks followed with a wide-open dunk and Hicks contributed a dunk of his own to give the Tar Heels a 64-52 advantage with 7:58 left in the contest.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Lacey hit all 10 of his attempts from the free-throw line, and the Wolfpack were 16-of-22 overall. … Tokoto had seven points, five assists and four rebounds. … N.C. State collected 18 offensive rebounds while posting a 37-33 edge on the boards.