CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — John Henson had 24 points and 10 rebounds to help fourth-ranked North Carolina beat Long Beach State 84-78 on Saturday night.
Harrison Barnes added 20 points as the Tar Heels (8-2) rallied from a 45-40 halftime deficit to win their second straight game to open a monthlong home stand. North Carolina led by as many as 11 points in the second half, but couldn't pull away and had to keep making plays into the final seconds to secure this one against the 49ers (4-5).
Reserve Reggie Bullock scored 15 points for the second straight game for the Tar Heels, including a stretch in which he scored eight straight points midway through the second half. That surge started a 13-2 spurt that helped put North Carolina ahead to stay, with Henson closing the run with a dunk off a feed from Bullock to make it 72-61 with 8 1/2 minutes left.
Henson got off to a fast start offensively, scoring 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting in the first half. But the longer the game went on, Henson made his biggest impact with his trademark defense by blocking layups — on one, he grabbed the ball with two hands and snatched it away from T.J. Robinson — on three separate possessions in the final 4 minutes. Long Beach State trailed by just six each time, the last coming when Henson blocked a shot from Casper Ware in the lane with about 30 seconds left.
Henson punctuated the win with a breakaway dunk in the final seconds, capping one of the best offensive performances of his career. In addition, Kendall Marshall tied his career high with 16 assists for the Tar Heels, while Tyler Zeller had 17 points to reach 1,000 career points.
Ware finished with a career-high 29 points for Long Beach State, which shot 47 percent and outrebounded the bigger Tar Heels 36-34 for the game. Larry Anderson added 17 points and Robinson finished with 12.
North Carolina shouldn't have had any thoughts of an easy victory coming in. Long Beach State tore up the Tar Heels' defense last December, cutting a 17-point second-half lead to two points with about 8 1/2 minutes left before UNC's offense carried the Tar Heels to a 96-91 victory. This season, the 49ers won at then-No. 9 Pittsburgh and cut a 19-point deficit to five with 3 minutes left in Tuesday's 88-80 loss at No. 13 Kansas.
In last year's meeting, Robinson scored a career-high 31 points and the 49ers shot 52 percent with10 3-pointers.
This time it was Ware, who had 14 points and hit four straight 3-pointers in the first six minutes. Then Anderson closed the first half by hitting a pair of 3s in the final 90 seconds to give the 49ers a 45-40 lead at the break.