North Carolina coach Roy Williams felt miserable about the way his team played against Tennessee, but he liked being lucky in the end.

North Carolina freshman center Tony Bradley blocked Tennessee freshman guard Lamonte Turner's attempt for the game-tying basket in the final seconds and the No. 7 Tar Heels, who rarely led, pulled out a 73-71 victory Sunday at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"It's the luckiest I've been in 1,003 games," Williams said, noting the number of times he has been a head coach for a college game. "That's the truth."

It's also true that the Tar Heels made enough plays in the final few minutes after falling into a 15-point hole.

"I approach it like we stunk it up and we made a couple of big plays at the end," Williams said.

Kenny Williams scored 12 points, Nate Britt had 11 and Bradley added 10 for North Carolina (10-1), which overcame a 15-point deficit.

Robert Hubbs III scored 21 points and Jordan Bowden had 12 points in Tennessee's first true road game of the season.

Justin Jackson's basket with 2:15 remaining gave the Tar Heels their first lead in more than 32 minutes of game time.

Jackson found some redemption despite a rough outing.

"I made my mistakes, for sure," he said. "So we have to get better at that."

Brandon Robinson's tip-in gave North Carolina a 72-69 edge before John Fulkerson answered for the Volunteers (4-4) at the 40-second mark.

North Carolina had an extended possession because of an offensive rebound before Tennessee's final chance.

For a long stretch, it was a strong showing for Tennessee.

"We've played enough games now where we have a pretty good beat on these guys and we know what we're looking for," Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said. "We're looking for consistency. ... We have to learn (from that game) and keep building."

The Tar Heels seem rattled by a couple of scares at home during the past week.

"I think we're definitely capable of playing good basketball," North Carolina forward Kennedy Meeks said.

The Volunteers held North Carolina to 39.7 percent shooting from the field and forced 10 turnovers. But the Tar Heels grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, exploiting a size advantage that had Barnes concerned.

The defense in general might have been a good sign for the Volunteers

"If you're going to be a good road team, you have to be a really, really good defensive team," Barnes said.

The Tar Heels scored the first six points of the second half, resulting in a Tennessee timeout.

When reserve guard Stilman White made a jumper with about 13 1/2 minutes left, it tied the game at 50 as the Tar Heels escaped a 15-point hole even though forward Isaiah Hicks picked up his fourth foul a couple of minutes later (and fouled out with 3:09 to play).

Tennessee threatened to take control again until another North Carolina surge at the end.

The Tar Heels played their second game in a row without junior point guard Joel Berry, who suffered a sprained ankle last Sunday against Radford.

Tennessee took a 23-13 lead while the Tar Heels went in a 1-for-9 shooting slump and North Carolina coach Roy Williams tried several lineup combinations. The gap ballooned to 30-15 before settling at 44-36 at halftime.

That's the most points allowed by North Carolina in any half this season.

Hubbs made all seven of his first-half shots from the field, pouring in 15 points in the opening half.

Jackson, a junior who matched his career high with 27 points Wednesday night against Davidson, missed his first seven shots before sinking a jumper in the waning seconds of the first half. He finished 3-for-15 (0-for-6 on 3s) for seven points.

Tennessee reserves had outscored the opposing team's reserves in every game this season until North Carolina's backups built a 28-16 advantage.

NOTES: In the last decade, Tennessee fell to 6-7 against teams that played in the NCAA championship game the previous season. ... Both these teams played in the Maui Invitational last month, but they didn't meet in the tournament. ... Rick Barnes holds a 6-6 record against teams coached by North Carolina's Roy Williams, with some of those meetings coming as Texas-Kansas matchups. ... For Tennessee, this marked the first of four games an eight-game span, with next outing a home game Tuesday against Tennessee Tech. ... North Carolina is off until Saturday's game against Kentucky in Las Vegas.