The #4 team in the nation showed why they belong among the nation’s elite with a dominating win over #16 Wisconsin, 71-56. Joel Berry led the Tar Heels in scoring with 22, but it was Kennedy Meeks who stood out tonight with 15 points and 16 rebounds. The big man had his way inside throughout the entire Maui Invitational, averaging 15 ppg and 11.3 rpg. Isaiah Hick (14) and Justin Jackson (12) were the other double-digit scorers for North Carolina.

The game started slow with both teams struggling to score early. The Badgers missed their first eleven shots of the game and fell behind 8-0 before scoring their first basket with 12:42 left to make it an 8-3 game. Two minutes later UNC’s lead was cut to three, but were able to keep Wisconsin at bay. After a Vitto Brown three-pointer cut the deficit to six, North Carolina went on a five to two run to make it nine-point halftime lead, 29-20.

Coming out after halftime, the Badgers flipped the script from the beginning of the game and made three of their first four shots to cut the Tar Heels’ lead to six at 27-33 with 17:14 left in the game. This was the closest Wisconsin would get for the rest of the game. After that the Tar Heels would go on a 16-3 run, fueled by Kennedy Meeks, to stretch the lead to 19. From then on UNC cruised to a convincing 18-point victory.

Going into the final game in Maui, Wisconsin had been outrebounding their opponents by an average of 19.2 rebounds per game as a team, good for third in the nation. The Tar Heels were able to neutralize the Badgers on the boards and held them to only 26 rebounds while corralling 38 of their own. Another area where UNC outperformed Wisconsin was from the charity stripe. The Tar Heels went a perfect 12-12 on free throws while the Badgers only managed to go 6-10.

What’s Next?

North Carolina– The Tar Heels will return to Chapel Hill and rest up for the next six days before heading to Bloomington to faceoff with an Indiana team that just lost to IPFW. The Hoosiers will be looking to prove themselves in front of a national audience in one of the best games of the ACC/B1G Challenge.

Wisconsin– The Badgers will return home to host Prairie View A&M in a tuneup game before #18 Syracuse comes to town as a part of the ACC/B1G Challenge.