Green sparks barrage

CHAPEL HILL -- The highlight of this matchup the past couple of seasons had been counting how many dunks 7-foot-7 UNC-Asheville center Kenny George could slam without leaving the floor.

With the big man sidelined during the top-ranked Tar Heels' 116-48 blowout Sunday night, the fun part for North Carolina fans was following how many 3-pointers Danny Green could swish before he finally missed.

The answer was six -- all in the second half -- which accounted for all 18 of the senior's points and a good portion of UNC's season-high 27 3-point attempts.

"At the end, the last couple were mostly heat-checks -- to see if I could make it, or how close I could come,'' Green said of his 3-point barrage. "We were just having fun."

It was that kind of game for the Tar Heels, who remained unbeaten (7-0) by scoring the most points in coach Roy Williams' six-year tenure as head coach. The blowout marked the Tar Heels' largest margin of victory under Williams and the third-largest winning margin in school history.

"We just made a bunch of shots, and they missed a bunch of shots, and that was the ballgame," Williams said.

With UNC All-American Tyler Hansbrough sitting out his fourth game of the season, this time because of a sore left ankle, and George at home in Chicago still recovering after having part of his right foot amputated as a result of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, the Bulldogs opened the game with a 6-2 lead.

That prompted Williams to pull starting forwards Deon Thompson and Ed Davis off the floor "because I didn't think they were very focused at all."

The result was the smallest lineup in recent Tar Heels history -- the 6-6 Green at center, 6-6 Will Graves at power forward and 6-3 Bobby Frasor at wing forward. But it led to a 13-1 run that allowed UNC to take control before the bigger guys came back in.

Point guard Ty Lawson dominated throughout and scored 14 of his team-high 22 points by halftime, when UNC led 53-19.

Then Green, who had previously topped his career high for 3-pointers in the Maui Invitational last week, went to work. He hit his first shot from behind the arc 27 seconds into the second half to make the score 56-19.

His third, with 16:35 left, gave the Tar Heels a 40-point lead.

And his sixth, which he shot while standing on the outline of the state of North-Carolina sticker at midcourt, made it 82-32.

"You start to test yourself -- where can I shoot it from and make it?" Green said.

"... I heard, 'THREE!' [from the crowd], and I'm like, 'I'm not shooting this.' But nobody stopped the ball. So why not?"

Green finally was pulled from the game by Williams about a minute later, after his second shot from near the sticker missed.

But the tone was set. Lawson made two of four 3-point attempts for the game, and walk-on J.B. Tanner came of the bench in the final minutes to add two swishes from behind the arc, as well.

UNC's 14 made 3-pointers were the most since it also hit 14 against Virginia in January of 2005. And in such a lopsided blowout, it gave the fans something to watch until the end.

"Danny got us all excited, and got everybody riled up, and we were just happy,'' guard Wayne Ellington said. "I thought it was contagious; everybody started knocking down shots after that."

BRIEFLY: Williams said he has no idea whether Hansbrough will play against Michigan State in Detroit on Wednesday.