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CHARLOTTE — It was billed as a matchup of point guards: a track meet led by North Carolina's freshman Kendall Marshall against Washington's junior Isaiah Thomas.

In the end, Carolina ganged up on Thomas.

Marshall attacked him on offense, but Dexter Strickland picked him up in Carolina's man-to-man defense and simply didn't let Thomas be Thomas.

Strickland finished with 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting — his second double-figure scoring game in the last 13 — but it was his defense more than anything else that lifted Carolina to an 86-83 victory at Time Warner Cable Arena on Sunday. (Final stats)

The No. 2 seed Tar Heels (28-7) advance in the NCAA East Regional. They'll play a Sweet 16 game in Newark this week — not far from Strickland's home town of Rahway, N.J.

Thomas, MVP of the Pac-10 tournament, came in averaging 17 points and six assists per game. The 5-foot-9 speedster is the key to everything Washington does.

Strickland put that key in his pocket. Thomas finished with 12 points and eight assists. He shot 5-for-15 from the field. Three of those field goals came with Strickland on the bench. A fourth came on a defensive switch.

"The key to stopping him was limiting his touches to the ball," Strickland said. "Not just myself, but my teammates, they did a great job of ... being supportive and playing defense the Carolina way."

Strickland has struggled since hurting his right knee in a collision with a photographer Feb. 6. His offense has been spotty at best, but his defense has remained a constant.

"Dexter has taken a lot of criticism because all the other four guys are getting so much attention," Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "Everybody is saying Dexter is the weak link. I'm so proud of him for playing with the knee the way it is, knowing he's going to have surgery at the end of the season. I love the fact that he was successful today."

For all intents and purposes, the game ended on a defensive play. John Henson tipped a Washington inbounds pass to Strickland with 7.4 seconds left, and Strickland hit a pair of free throws to stretch the lead to 86-83.

It was appropriate, considering the defensive job Strickland did all afternoon against one of the top point guards in the nation.

"Strick is a defensive menace," said Henson, the ACC's defensive player of the year.

Harrison Barnes, who had 22 points and three steals, went even further.

"There's such a fine line between winning and losing," Barnes said. "A turnover here, or a bad pass there, or a missed box-out. We knew that coming down the stretch, last 4 minutes, we have to play the best defense we've played all year."

The Heels had an example to follow: Strickland's effort against Thomas.

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