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RALEIGH -- A game that didn't deserve to be remembered for all time won't be. An end-game brawl that had no business happening didn't. North Carolina defeated N.C. State 93-76 Saturday afternoon right before they cleared the floor of the debris and got ready for hockey.

Roy Williams benched Tyler Hansbrough for not boxing out, and Ben McCauley decked Mike Copeland for trying to dunk with two seconds to play, and Carolina beat State right before the hockey game broke out.

The 19-2 Heels won for the fifth straight time in the series that dates back to 1912. North Carolina has won 11 of the last 12 games between the rivals, and little that happened Saturday suggested State is going to catch UNC anytime soon.

State fell to 11-8 and 2-5 in the ACC in a season that's not really a rebuilding year. This is more of a year in waiting for Sidney Lowe and the Wolfpack, and the natives are getting restless. Saturday's loss landed hard on an afternoon when a vote of confidence from the school's athletics director landed on the porches of Raleigh earlier in the morning. A big-time recruiting class is on the horizon again, and that's apparently enough to calm the nerves of the faithful.

Nothing makes State fans happier than a recruiting class on the horizon. Nothing ever makes a loss to North Carolina acceptable, however, and almost 20,000 people walked out of the RBC Center feeling just as agitated as they did when they walked in.

Lowe is in his third season here, and he's still playing Herb Sendek's recruits and having a hard time getting his own into the rotation. He says he's satisfied with an eight-man rotation, though that includes as many as 12 players at any given time. For now, Lowe will settle for five guys playing hard at the same time.

"We're getting there," Lowe said. "We're getting there. Now if we can put that together with making some shots. That would help. We're competing. We're definitely competing. But we've got to make some shots."

State made run after run, cutting into Carolina's big leads only to see the Heels streak away again and again. Hansbrough reacted to the benching by scoring 31 points as Williams condensed his rotation, slowly coming to the realization that forward Marcus Ginyard might not be back this season. That revolution didn't include Will Graves, who didn't even play during the sloppy final seconds.

"I didn't want him to play," Williams said.

Carolina's won five games since the wobbly start to January, a result of the emerging lineups and the easy part of the ACC schedule. State has lost six of eight, the result of no point guards and the fact that, other than N.C. Central next week, there are no easy games for the Wolfpack this season. That's a hindrance to Lowe's half-court offensive mind, and the reason for N.C. State's inability to sustain runs.

The irony, of course, is that State leads the nation in point guards watching from the bench, a lineup of floor leaders from Lowe himself to discarded floor leaders still in uniform. He's been looking for a leader for three years now, and there are indications that the next one's still in high school.

That's not such a bad thing for the Pack, and State AD Lee Fowler told the local paper Saturday that Lowe has his full support. With the lowest conference winning percentage of any State coach in conference history, the vote of confidence is either a good thing or a bad thing.

The pregame fireworks gave way to a smoky atmosphere inside the hockey arena Saturday, and for brief and elusive moments it looked as if State might have caught Carolina on a bad day. Hansbrough was on the bench gritting his teeth, including the one he reinserted himself last week against Clemson. Even without Ginyard, their toughest player, the Heels have a toughness that can carry them through the rough spots of the easy part of the schedule.

The gritty Wolfpack has to play that way every night, and the former point guard knows deep down that's never a good thing. For a team in waiting, though, he said he's somewhat satisfied.

"I am pleased, pretty much, with the effort," Lowe said. "The guys are being resilient and just continue to fight."

The game that began with pyrotechnics ended with Carolina's reserve from Winston-Salem flying in for what might've been an explosive, though unnecessary, dunk. Copeland never made it. McCauley, fighting to the end, body-slammed him in midair causing two technicals and a brief spat broken up by players, coaches and referee Les Jones. A rolled-up program landed on the court, and security eyeballed the stands and an ugly end to an OK game was averted.

Then the restless filed out, still agitated, as the temperature inside the arena dropped and a hockey game began on a day that won't be remembered in the long State-Carolina series.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com