No. 15 North Carolina 87, Wake Forest 71: Brice Johnson led the way with 19 points on 8-of-11 from the field as the hot-shooting Tar Heels sprinted past the host Demon Deacons.

Kennedy Meeks scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and added seven rebounds while Justin Jackson went 6-of-8 from the floor en route to 17 points for North Carolina (15-4, 5-1 ACC). Marcus Paige collected 12 points and eight assists as the Tar Heels shot 60.3 percent in their fourth straight win.

Codi Miller-McIntyre recorded 20 points, six rebounds and six assists for Wake Forest (9-10, 1-5), which has dropped four of five. Devin Thomas had 12 points and 12 boards while Mitchell Wilbekin and Konstantinos Mitoglou scored 10 apiece for the Demon Deacons.

North Carolina ended the first half with a 12-6 run to take a 40-34 lead into the break. The Tar Heels knocked down their first three shots of the second half to increase the gap to 10 points and made it 7-of-8 as Jackson’s layup upped the lead to 54-40 with just over 15 minutes left.

Joel James’ jumper pushed the margin to 63-45 with 12 1/2 minutes to play before Mitoglou’s 3-pointer cut the gap to 14 points six minutes later. Wake Forest drew as close as 79-67 before North Carolina closed it out at the line.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Wake Forest entered the game last in the ACC in both scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense and surrendered at least 85 points for the third time in five games. … Thomas has posted a double-double in four of the last five games. … North Carolina is 3-0 on the road in ACC play for the first time since 2007-08.