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DURHAM — Roy Williams' sport coat came off. Ty Lawson went off. And North Carolina trotted off the slick Cameron Indoor Stadium court with its fourth consecutive victory in its archrival's house.

Lawson scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the decisive second half, leading all five North Carolina starters in double figures as the No. 3 Tar Heels defeated No. 6 Duke 101-87 on Wednesday night.

Photos of the game

With the win, the Tar Heels (22-2 overall, 8-2 ACC) broke a tie with Duke (20-4, 7-3) atop the ACC standings just past the halfway point of the season.

"It's still a very happy locker room right now," Williams said moments after the game.

And for good reason. The Heels won their fourth straight game at Durham by coming back from a sluggish first half, when Duke led by as many as nine points.

Tyler Hansbrough scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half when Carolina hit nearly 60 percent of its shots. Danny Green and Wayne Ellington finished with 15 points apiece, and Deon Thompson scored 14.

Kyle Singler scored 22 points and Jon Scheyer had 20 to lead Duke.

"We're not as good as they are right now," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "&ellipses; We've come a long way since last Wednesday (a 74-47 loss at Clemson), but we've still got a ways to go."

Hansbrough drew his coach's ire with about 13 minutes left and the game very much in doubt. With the Heels trailing, their All-American big man failed to help teammate Bobby Frasor, who was knocked to the floor on a hard screen at midcourt set by Duke's Lance Thomas.

Off came the coach's jacket. But the anger faded, thanks in large part to Lawson.

The junior point guard hit a pair of free throws with 12:05 left that gave the Heels a 64-63 lead, their first since 6:34 remained in the first half.

"We just had more spacing and better ball movement" in the second half, Williams said. "On the (dry-erase) board at halftime, I showed them two different scenarios where we had two post players 2 feet from each other in the lane. You've got to have better spacing than that."

With Carolina clinging to a 74-71 lead, Lawson scored back-to-back baskets to start a decisive 14-0 run. Lawson scored nine points in the spurt, finishing it with a hoop-and-harm three-point play to put the Heels ahead 88-71.

"I thought Carolina had an A-plus game tonight," Krzyzewski said. "They were incredibly efficient offensively. &ellipses; To get that many points (101) on that number of shots (62), and Lawson was a pro tonight. That's as good as any point guard has played against us."

Carolina led by as many as 17 the rest of the way.

North Carolina opened the game on a 14-6 scoring run, but Duke dominated the rest of the half. Trailing 34-26, the Blue Devils went on a 14-0 run to take their first lead. Five different players scored points in the run.

"I was really disappointed in the first half in our defensive play," Williams said. "We were sorry in that first half. We said we were going to come over here and guard people and show some intensity, and we just didn't do it in the first half."

But they did in the second half. And now they're alone in first place.

NOTES: Carolina sixth man Frasor, who came into the game 1-for-14 from 3-point range in ACC games, hit all three of his shots behind the arc in the first half. His third gave the Tar Heels a 34-26 lead. &ellipses; Frasor's nine points are the most from a player off the Heels' bench since Will Graves had 10 against Evansville on Dec. 18. &ellipses; Duke point guard Greg Paulus, who finished with eight points, has started the last four home games against North Carolina and is the first Blue Devils player in 24 years to play in four consecutive home losses to the Heels. ... Hansbrough and Danny Green are the first Carolina players to win four times in Cameron in the 28 years Krzyzewski has been at Duke.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

NORTH CAROLINA (22-2, 8-2)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Green 24 5-9 4-4 0-5 2 4 15

Thompson 24 5-10 2-2 3-4 0 2 12

Hansbrough 33 6-9 4-6 2-6 1 4 17

Lawson 34 8-11 9-9 1-4 5 1 25

Ellington 34 4-15 6-8 1-7 2 2 15

Frasor 27 3-4 0-0 0-2 2 2 9

Drew II 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Davis 14 3-4 2-2 3-4 0 2 8

Copeland 3 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Totals 200 34-62 27-31 12-36 13 17 101

Percentages: FG .548, FT .871.

3-Point Goals: 6-15, .400 (Frasor 3-4, Hansbrough 1-1, Green 1-3, Ellington 1-6, Lawson 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 3.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Davis, Hansbrough).

Turnovers: 15 (Lawson 5, Green 3, Hansbrough 2, Drew II 2, Ellington, Thompson, Davis).

Steals: 8 (Ellington 3, Lawson 2, Davis, Thompson, Green).

Technical Fouls: None.

DUKE (20-4, 7-3)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Singler 33 9-15 1-3 3-6 3 3 22

Henderson 34 7-16 2-4 0-3 2 4 17

Thomas 20 2-4 1-3 4-6 0 2 5

Paulus 28 3-5 0-0 1-2 3 3 8

Scheyer 33 6-15 6-7 1-2 4 1 20

Smith 22 5-9 1-1 1-5 2 4 11

McClure 21 1-3 0-0 1-2 3 4 2

Zoubek 9 1-3 0-0 3-4 1 2 2

Totals 200 34-70 11-18 14-31 18 23 87

Percentages: FG .486, FT .611.

3-point goals: 8-24, .333 (Singler 3-5, Paulus 2-3, Scheyer 2-7, Henderson 1-6, McClure 0-1, Smith 0-2).

Team rebounds: 1.

Blocked shots: 3 (McClure, Zoubek, Henderson).

Turnovers: 15 (Henderson 4, Scheyer 3, Smith 3, Paulus 2, Thomas, Singler).

Steals: 12 (Paulus 4, Smith 2, Singler 2, McClure 2, Scheyer 2).

Technical fouls: Singler.

North Carolina 44 57 — 101

Duke 52 35 — 87

A—9,314.

Officials—Karl Hess, Tony Greene, Mike Wood.