Hot-shooting No. 5 UConn knocks off No. 9 UNC

Cam Spencer scored 23 points and No. 5 UConn used some hot shooting to defeat No. 9 North Carolina 87-76 on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic in New York.

Alex Karaban posted 18 points and nine rebounds, Tristen Newton racked up 14 points, and Solomon Ball had 13 points for UConn (8-1), which shot 51.5 percent.

RJ Davis scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half for North Carolina (7-2), which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Davis has scored 20 or more points in six games this season.

Harrison Ingram added 20 points and Armando Bacot, who shot 4-for-12, supplied 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Tar Heels.

The Huskies, who were coming off a loss Friday night in a showdown at Kansas, were relentless at times on the boards, securing 11 offensive rebounds.

North Carolina, which has topped nationally ranked foes Arkansas and Tennessee since late November, ended up 7-for-20 on 3-pointers, including an 0-for-6 line for Cormac Ryan. Unlike in Saturday's big second-half comeback against Florida State, the Tar Heels weren't able to create enough havoc with full-court pressure to stem UConn's effort.

The Huskies made their first four 3-point attempts in the second half to build a 13-point lead and then withstood a few North Carolina rallies. Ball had two of UConn's first four 3-pointers in the half as the Huskies outscored the Tar Heels 16-8 in the first five minutes.

UConn regrouped after North Carolina closed within 69-63. The Huskies stretched their lead to 75-63 as the Tar Heels were in a 1-for-11 stretch.

Then within nine, North Carolina had back-to-back turnovers to thwart any major shift in momentum.

The Huskies overcame some moderate foul trouble in the first half.

UConn, which was playing North Carolina for the first time since 2005, was up by 10 points, but the Tar Heels made six of their last eight shots to pull within 44-39 at the break.

—Field Level Media