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CHAPEL HILL — Will Graves hobbled into the locker room, a bag of ice taped to his aching right ankle.

Graves tried to keep a straight face when he said it didn't hurt, but he couldn't. Just like he couldn't miss the chance to play in No. 9 North Carolina's ACC opener against Virginia Tech before a raucous crowd at the Smith Center on Sunday night.

Graves and point guard Larry Drew shot 5-for-5 from the 3-point line in the second half, and the Tar Heels ran defender after defender at Virginia Tech star Malcolm Delaney on the way to a come-from-behind 78-64 victory.

Ed Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Heels (12-4, 1-0 ACC). Drew scored all 14 of his points in the second half, and Graves and Deon Thompson finished with 13 apiece.

Delaney, who came in as the ACC's leading scorer at 19.8 points per game, finished with 26 for the Hokies (12-2, 0-1). But the silky-smooth point guard scored 20 of those points in the first half, when Virginia Tech built a 38-34 lead.

"Delaney's a great player, and it's just a matter of staying in front of him," said Graves, a 6-foot-6 junior from Greensboro and former News & Record prep player of the year at Dudley. "He's smart with the basketball. You saw how he was making plays to get fouled in the first half. He was real smart to get to the line, and he's a great shooter."

Delaney shot 12-for-14 from the foul line, including 10-for-12 in the first half.

"I always say defense is a matter of heart," Graves added, "and in the second half we showed we had a lot of heart. We wanted to stop him, and we did a pretty good job of slowing him down. I ain't going to say we stopped him, because nobody stops him. But we slowed him down a little bit."

The Tar Heels shut out Delaney for the first 11:28 of the second half, turning a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead during that stretch.

Drew spent much of the first half on the bench, picking up three fouls while trying to guard Delaney in Carolina's man-to-man defense. With Drew in foul trouble, Carolina used defensive stopper Marcus Ginyard to guard Delaney. Then freshman Dexter Strickland. Then freshman Leslie McDonald.

"When Larry got his third foul, we took him off Delaney and let Dexter and Marcus and Leslie chase him," Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "… We had fresh people on him. When you add that to the fact that I think his ankle started bothering him more in the second half, I think that helped us."

Delaney sat out Virginia Tech's last game with a sprained left ankle, and the rotation of defenders Carolina used on him helped Drew find his game. Drew was terrific down the stretch.

"Malcolm had 20 in the first half," Drew said, "and I was out there in the first half and got three fouls, a turnover, no points. I didn't really do anything. And being the starting point guard on a team like North Carolina, that's just unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me. So I took it upon myself to either make something happen or I was going to be over there on the bench with coach Williams."

Leading 60-55, Carolina put the game away with a stretch of three consecutive 3-pointers, getting defensive stops after the first two. Graves hit one from the wing, then Drew hit from the top of the key and Graves from the corner.

"It's big in crunch time to hit shots like Will hit and like I hit," Drew said. "We really need to be able to hit the outside shot to open up the middle for Deon and Ed and Tyler (Zeller) to work."

Those perimeter shots put the Heels ahead by 14 points with 4:00 left and also snapped a long dry spell. Carolina was 1-for-6 from long range in its upset loss at College of Charleston, and the Heels missed their first 11 3-point shots against Virginia Tech.

Graves finally broke the long dry spell with 7:51 left, and he and Drew combined to hit the Heels' last five 3-point attempts.

"The best teams have a good (inside-outside) mix, and we've been trying to get a good mix," Williams said. "We've got a lot of guys who can shoot (3-pointers). I like those guys who can make'em. That always makes it better."

Graves made them, bad ankle and all. Then he hobbled into the locker room and talked about it.

"My ankle? It’s great," Graves said, stifling a snicker. "I told the trainer that 'pain' is not going to be a word that comes out of my mouth unless I'm saying, 'I don't have any pain.' My ankle is fine."

NOTES: Graves and Ginyard sat out North Carolina's loss in Charleston, both with sprained right ankles. … Leslie McDonald rolled his right ankle in Charleston and was limited in practice heading into the Virginia Tech game. … North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who had surgery on his left shoulder in November, wore a protective sling for nine games before shedding it for a suit coat Sunday night. … North Carolina is 48-9 in ACC openers. … North Carolina blocked 10 shots against Virginia Tech. The Tar Heels came in averaging 6.6 per game, a pace that would shatter the school record for blocks in a season (219 in 1993-94). … The last time Virginia Tech came into a head-to-head matchup with North Carolina with a higher winning percentage was Dec. 11, 1971, when the Hokies were 1-0 and the Tar Heels were 2-1. … Virginia Tech was trying to win 10 games in a row for the first time since the 1961-62 season. … Virginia Tech is 8-26 against nationally ranked teams since joining the ACC for the 2004-05 season. The Hokies are 25-134 all-time against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. … North Carolina has won 23 of its last 25 games against Virginia Tech. … North Carolina is 11-0 at home this season, and just 1-4 away from Chapel Hill.

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

VIRGINIA TECH (12-2) — Bell 2-11 0-0 5, Allen 2-5 0-1 4, Davila 2-3 0-0 4, Hudson 7-22 0-0 14, Delaney 6-13 12-14 26, Raines 0-2 0-0 0, Thompson 4-6 0-2 8, Atkins 0-1 0-0 0, Green 1-3 0-0 3, Boggs 0-1 0-1 0, Witcher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-67 12-18 64.

NORTH CAROLINA (12-4) — Graves 5-10 0-1 13, Thompson 4-7 5-6 13, Davis 7-11 6-7 20, Strickland 3-4 1-3 7, Drew II 4-4 4-4 14, Henson 1-3 0-0 2, Zeller 1-4 1-1 3, Ginyard 1-3 0-0 2, T.Wear 1-1 0-0 2, McDonald 1-4 0-0 2, D.Wear 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-52 17-22 78.

Halftime—Virginia Tech 38-34.
3-point goals—Virginia Tech 4-18 (Delaney 2-5, Green 1-2, Bell 1-3, Boggs 0-1, Thompson 0-1, Hudson 0-6), North Carolina 5-16 (Graves 3-7, Drew II 2-2, Henson 0-1, Strickland 0-1, D.Wear 0-1, McDonald 0-2, Ginyard 0-2).
Fouled out—Thompson, Thompson.
Rebounds—Virginia Tech 35 (Allen, Davila 7), North Carolina 38 (Davis 11).
Assists—Virginia Tech 11 (Delaney 6), North Carolina 14 (Drew II 8).
Total fouls—Virginia Tech 19, North Carolina 19.
A—20,581.