Freshmen aren't supposed to be poised enough to keep it together when the 10th-ranked team in the country is making a comeback run. They're not supposed to actually enjoy the atmosphere of playing in their first road game.

And they're certainly not supposed to be able to hear their own coach's instructions when they are playing in raucous building such as Rupp Arena.

So after North Carolina silenced Kentucky's crowd with an 83-79 shocker on Saturday, point guard Bobby Frasor had to grin -- along with his freshman teammates, of course.

"Everyone thinks you can't stay poised as a freshman, but the way coaches prepare us and everyone talks to us, it was just a fun basketball game," he said.

Juniors Reyshawn Terry (25) and Wes Miller (12) produced career highs in points, and senior David Noel chipped in a career-high seven offensive rebounds in addition to 15 points and calm leadership. But it was the team's overall poise down the stretch that allowed the Tar Heels (4-1) to withstand a furious Wildcats rally and win for the first time in Rupp Arena.

Kentucky (5-2), which saw its 11-game winning streak at Rupp shattered, still has more victories than any other team in NCAA Division I college basketball history with 1,909. But Carolina, No. 2 on the list, inched closer with this victory. The Heels now boast 1,864.

Asked to assess his young team after losing by a basket to No. 12 Illinois on Tuesday, then winning their first road game Saturday, a thrilled coach Roy Williams said, "... it's too big for me to be a philosopher right now."

After all, this one might take a while to sink in.

Williams, a superstitious sort, was nervous enough about the game that he said he wore a brown suit Saturday to honor legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, then touched one of the doors at Memorial Coliseum -- where the Wildcats used to play -- on his morning walk for luck.

But perhaps his best pre-game activity was to write "poise and focus" on a board in the locker room.

The reminder came in handy.

Despite shooting 40 percent, UNC led 44-32 at the half thanks to 16 points from Terry (which matched his career-high) and a 20-13 rebounding advantage.

"I think our offensive rebounding was important to us in the first half because when we did miss a shot, David or somebody got the offensive rebound and put it back in," Williams said.

It was also Noel, the top returning player from last year's national championship team, who made sure his freshman teammates didn't get so excited about leading at halftime that they lost their composure once they got back onto the court.

"I told the guys during halftime that they [the Wildcats] were going to come out and make a run, the crowd's going to get back into it ... that we have to be prepared," he said.

Bingo.

Kentucky opened the second half with a 12-2 run that included two buckets by Durham's Bobby Perry and three turnovers by the Tar Heels to trail 46-44.

But with the animated crowd of 23,869 stomping and roaring, freshman Marcus Ginyard (eight points) coolly passed to Terry for a layup. Freshman Tyler Hansbrough (six points, 10 rebounds) secured a Wildcats miss at the other end, then assisted Frasor (nine points, two assists) on a 3-pointer that gave the Tar Heels a seven-point cushion.

Crisis weathered.

"Freshmen believe things," Williams said. "Sometimes they believe things when they shouldn't. I told them, when the Rupp Arena crowd got to rocking -- because Kentucky's play had made the crowd really get into it -- to pretend they were cheering for them."

Perhaps UNC tried that when, with 4:22 left, the Cats cut their deficit to 71-66.

That got the crowd back onto its feet ... until Kentucky turned the ball over on its next two possessions. Ginyard calmly scored a bucket to end the run and Noel added a 3-pointer to stretch the lead by to 10.

Kentucky guard Rajon Rondo led his team with a career-high 20 points, but eight of those came in the final 23 seconds, when the Wildcats were trying to score quickly and foul.

In the end, Carolina made 10 3-pointers (their best output of the season); out-rebounded Kentucky by seven on the offensive boards and got 20 points off the bench.

"Against a good team, you have to play with a little more poise and a little more under control," Wildcats coach Tubby Smith said. "We seemed to be playing too fast and in a hurry. ... You get a little anxious, you have to fight the pressure and don't panic."

Just the kind of thing the much younger Heels avoided.