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CHAPEL HILL — With apologies to The Who, the kids are all right.

Sophomore center Ed Davis scored 22 points, sophomore point guard Larry Drew had 18 — both career highs — and North Carolina's touted freshmen played their best game of the young season, helping the No. 10 Tar Heels defeat No. 9 Michigan State 89-82 at the Smith Center on Tuesday night.

The seniors were OK, too. Deon Thompson scored 14 points and Marcus Ginyard had nine points and seven assists for North Carolina (7-1), which improved to 10-3 all-time against Michigan State (5-2) and 6-5 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Carolina has won five in a row against the Spartans, including last season's national championship game and two in a row in the Challenge. Even so, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he would gladly face the Tar Heels again in next season's made-for-TV event.

"You know what?" Izzo said. "In 15 years I've never backed down from anybody and I'm not going to start now. You want to schedule it? Schedule it."

This time, Carolina beat a veteran Michigan State team by building a 16-point halftime lead, pushing it to 19 in the second half and then holding on for dear life.

"In the first half, we really played great," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "In the second half I don't think we were as attentive to detail. We lost our concentration a little bit, and yet, we made some big plays in that stretch."

Will Graves, a junior guard from Greensboro, made three of the biggest. The former Dudley star and News & Record high school player of the year hit a short jumper off the dribble to make it 80-69 with 2:55 left. Before Graves' basket, the Heels had just two field goals in a 10-minute stretch.

Graves then made two key tip-outs off teammates' missed free throws — Carolina shot just 18-for-30 from the foul line — keeping the ball away from the Spartans in the final minutes.

"It's not typical of our team to miss free throws," Williams said, "and yet, it's not typical of Will Graves to do the little things he did on two big tip-outs. I told him, he's been in my doghouse so bad and I said a few things to him I'd never say out in public. But those were two big plays. We missed free throws, and he made tip-outs for us to get us the extra time."

Raymar Morgan scored 18 points to lead the Spartans, who rallied back from a 19-point deficit in the second half despite shooting just 2-for-20 from 3-point range.

"It's hard to be disappointed and proud of your team at the same time," Izzo said. "... I thought we did a pretty good job of battling back, but we just kind of ran out of gas and our three best shooters couldn't make a shot."

Michigan State needed to battle back because of a critical stretch of the first half.

Trailing 17-16 with 12:26 left before halftime, North Carolina went on a 14-4 scoring run.

By its nature, basketball is a game of ebb and flow, but this run was special because of who was on the court for the Tar Heels.

"To me," Williams said, "the key in the first half was everyone who came in gave us something positive."

Drew, who came into the season with unanswered questions about his jump shot, started the spurt by hitting a 3-pointer. Drew has been a pleasant surprise, shooting 9-for-19 (47 percent) from 3-point range so far this season.

Then, with one senior — Thompson — and four freshmen on the court, Carolina's kids scored the next 11 points.

John Henson had a put-back dunk. Travis Wear hit a jumper from the corner. David Wear scored on a put-back layup. And Dexter Strickland — Drew's backup at the point — hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a driving layup.

And so the freshmen built a nine-point lead against Michigan State's Final Four veterans. The lead grew to 13 on Ginyard's spinning fast-break layup.

Strickland's buzzer-beating 3-pointer made it 50-34 at halftime — the third time in a row Carolina scored 50 first-half points against Michigan State.

The end result was the same all three times. This time there was no national championship trophy to hoist. On this night, only the confidence of Carolina's kids was lifted.

NOTES: The ACC has won the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in each of the first 10 seasons. ... In 11 seasons, Michigan State is the only Big Ten team with a .500 record at 5-5 — 2-2 against North Carolina — in the challenge. ... Michigan State came in shooting .556 from the field and .469 from 3-point range in its last three games. ... Michigan State shot 14-for-22 from 3-point range in its last game, a 106-68 victory over UMass. ... That victory was No. 341 for coach Tom Izzo, moving him past his mentor, Jud Heathcote, into first place on Michigan State's all-time wins list.

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

MICHIGAN ST. (5-2) — Morgan 7-10 4-6 18, Roe 4-6 0-0 8, Sherman 1-1 0-0 2, Summers 7-17 0-0 16, Lucas 6-17 3-4 15, Green 4-8 5-6 13, Allen 2-9 0-0 4, Lucious 3-11 0-0 6, Nix 0-0 0-0 0, Thornton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-79 12-16 82.

NORTH CAROLINA (7-1) — Graves 2-2 0-0 5, Thompson 5-12 4-5 14, Davis 8-10 6-8 22, Ginyard 3-5 2-6 9, Drew II 6-7 5-6 18, Henson 1-2 0-0 2, Zeller 3-8 0-1 6, Strickland 3-5 1-4 9, T.Wear 1-3 0-0 2, McDonald 0-2 0-0 0, D.Wear 1-1 0-0 2, Watts 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-57 18-30 89.

Halftime—North Carolina 50-34.
3-point goals—Michigan St. 2-20 (Summers 2-6, Lucas 0-3, Lucious 0-5, Allen 0-6), North Carolina 5-10 (Strickland 2-3, Graves 1-1, Ginyard 1-2, Drew II 1-2, Henson 0-1, Thompson 0-1).
Fouled out—Green, Roe.
Rebounds—Michigan St. 39 (Roe 10), North Carolina 39 (Davis 6).
Assists—Michigan St. 16 (Lucious 5), North Carolina 21 (Ginyard 7).
Total fouls—Michigan St. 24, North Carolina 15.
A—21,346.