CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Blue Cain answered North Carolina’s last attempt to pull the game back with the shot that finally separated Georgia. His three-pointer with 1:01 remaining turned a two-point lead into five, and the Bulldogs finished the job at the foul line to end the Tar Heels’ long home winning streak.
Georgia won 78-70 on Friday night at the Smith Center, improving to 4-0 and handing North Carolina its first loss of the season. Cain scored 20 points, Kanon Catchings had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Marcus Millender added 17 points with seven boards.
The result ended Carolina’s run of 21 consecutive home victories. More immediately, it exposed the difference between building a lead and securing it: the Tar Heels led by nine midway through the second half, but Georgia controlled the possessions and perimeter shots that decided the closing stretch.
According to North Carolina’s official game report, the teams were tied at 68 with 2:42 left. Georgia then scored 10 of the final 12 points, hitting two three-pointers and four free throws while Carolina missed four of its last five shots.
Catchings supplied the first of those late threes, making it 72-68 with 1:44 remaining. North Carolina still had an answer: Maximo Adams found Sayon Keita for a dunk that brought the Tar Heels within two. Cain’s response left them chasing a larger deficit with barely a minute available.
Millender subsequently made two free throws and James Scott added another. North Carolina did not score again. The final eight-point margin concealed how recently the game had still been level, but not how consistently Georgia had found a way to finish its possessions.
The rebounding numbers gave that assessment substance. Georgia won the boards 52-43, and 13 of its 15 second-chance points came after halftime. Carolina had enough offense to overturn its first-half deficit, but the Bulldogs kept creating extra scoring opportunities in the half when the lead was changing hands.
Long-range shooting created another separation. Georgia made 14 of 36 three-pointers, or 38.9 percent, while North Carolina finished 9 of 38, or 23.7 percent. Carolina’s 38 attempts were a program record, according to its report.
The difference was five made threes, worth 15 points, in a game decided by eight. That comparison does not assign every possession the same importance or explain every miss. It does show why Georgia could absorb a sustained second-half surge and still have enough scoring to take the game back.
The Bulldogs’ official result confirms a fourth win without a defeat. This one required them to withstand a substantial reversal rather than simply protect the advantage they carried into the locker room.
Georgia led 38-31 at halftime after closing the opening period on a 9-0 run. All three of its final made shots before the break were three-pointers. Carolina went scoreless for the last 2:49 and shot 9 for 36 in the half.
That 25 percent field-goal shooting tied the third-lowest percentage for a Carolina half in Smith Center history, the school said. Yet it did not prevent a very different start to the second half. The Tar Heels made nine of their first 14 shots after the break and forced Georgia to miss 10 of its first 15.
Back-to-back threes by Isaiah Denis pushed Carolina’s second-half surge to 29-13. The Tar Heels led 60-51 with 10:35 remaining, having turned a seven-point halftime deficit into a nine-point advantage.
Neo Avdalas scored 11 of his 14 points after halftime for Carolina, Denis finished with 11 points and three threes, and Adams collected 11 rebounds. Those contributions helped create the lead. They could not preserve it against Georgia’s late shooting and second opportunities.
Carolina coach Michael Malone had already used halftime to emphasise the value of a loose-ball possession that Georgia turned into an open three. Malone said he wanted his team to be “the more desperate team” and win the contested balls.
By the last minute, Carolina had produced the dunk it needed to keep the game close. Cain still had a three-pointer left.
