Rice, BC fell UNC

Tyrese Rice and Boston College ended all the talk of whether No. 1 North Carolina could go unbeaten.

A former L.C. Bird star, Rice scored 25 points in his second straight big game against the Tar Heels to help the Eagles stun North Carolina 85-78 last night, likely ending its run atop the early season polls.

Rakim Sanders added 22 points for the Eagles (1-0, 13-2), who led by six points at halftime and pushed the lead to 15 before holding off a rally from the Tar Heels (0-1, 13-1) in the ACC opener for both teams.

"We had to have the discipline in order to execute what it is we needed to do," Boston College coach Al Skinner said. "There were going to be breakdowns and there were, but guys were able to refocus and not compound those mistakes."

Tyler Hansbrough scored 21 points to lead North Carolina, which shot 29 percent from the field in the second half and was just 15 for 27 at the foul line for the game.

North Carolina had won its first 13 games by an average of 26 points, with the closest margin being 15 points. But on this day, the Tar Heels looked out of sync against the Eagles' physical defense and had no answers for Rice, who burned them for 46 points last season.

In that game, North Carolina rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit for a 90-80 victory as Rice was the only BC player to reach double figures.

"We just met the challenge," Rice said. "I felt like they hadn't been challenged all year. Every team that they've played against, they just walked right through them. You look at people playing defense against them, they stay back, people drive and they're standing straight up and not trying to contest shots. I can't watch a tape if everybody's playing like that.

"We wanted to challenge them to see if they could step up and play as hard as we were going to play."

Rice again caused North Carolina plenty of trouble, though this time he had early help from Sanders along with a key contribution from Reggie Jackson (17 points) in the decisive run. There would be no blown lead this time, just the sight of the BC bench spilling onto the court in celebration as the horn sounded.

"Needless to say, it hurts," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "We just never could get over the hump, didn't get them to turn it over very much. Then we had some guys -- including myself -- who didn't have as good of a day that we hoped we'd have."

Sanders scored 18 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer right in front of the North Carolina bench just before the horn that gave the Eagles a 46-40 lead. Then, after North Carolina closed the gap to two points four times, they answered with a spurt that had the Tar Heels chasing them the rest of the game.

First came a 3 from Joe Trapani. Then Jackson had a spinning score followed by a 3 of his own before capping a 12-2 run with a layup past Ellington that made it 70-58 with 10:09 to play.

Rice went 3 for 4 at the line in the final 30 seconds to seal the win. He finished 7 for 13 from the field and had eight assists with five rebounds.

BOSTON COLLEGE (13-2)

Raji 3-8 0-0 6, Trapani 3-9 1-2 8, Southern 1-7 2-2 4, Rice 7-13 9-10 25, Sanders 9-15 0-2 22, Dunn 0-0 0-0 0, Roche 0-3 0-0 0, Jackson 8-14 0-0 17, Paris 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 32-70 12-16 85.
NORTH CAROLINA (13-1)

Green 3-10 1-2 9, Thompson 2-6 1-6 5, Hansbrough 6-15 9-12 21, Ellington 7-16 0-0 16, Lawson 3-13 3-4 10, Davis 3-4 0-1 6, Ginyard 0-0 0-0 0, Frasor 1-2 0-0 3, Drew II 0-1 1-2 1, Graves 3-6 0-0 7. Totals 28-73 15-27 78.

Halftime -- Boston College 46-40. 3-point goals -- Boston College 9-24 (Sanders 4-7, Rice 2-6, Paris 1-1, Jackson 1-4, Trapani 1-4, Roche 0-2), North Carolina 7-22 (Green 2-6, Ellington 2-7, Frasor 1-2, Graves 1-3, Lawson 1-3, Drew II 0-1). Rebounds -- Boston College 40 (Raji 8), North Carolina 50 (Hansbrough 9). Assists -- Boston College 12 (Rice 8), North Carolina 15 (Lawson 4). Total fouls -- Boston College 18, North Carolina 15. Fouled out -- Southern. A -- 21,750.