Ed Davis had 19 points and 10 rebounds while fellow big man Tyler Zeller matched a career high with 18 points to lead No. 10 North Carolina past Marshall 98-61 on Tuesday night.
Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson added 14 points apiece and Will Graves had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels (9-3).
They shook off a sloppy start and broke open a surprisingly close game by scoring 18 straight points early in the second half and holding Marshall without a field goal for roughly 5 1/2 minutes.
Shaquille Johnson had 16 points and Tyler Wilkerson added 12 for Marshall (9-2). The Herd had their seven-game winning streak snapped, and were denied their first victory against a ranked team since beating then-No. 9 West Virginia in 2006.
North Carolina claimed the 1,993rd victory in the program's history _ only Kentucky, which one night earlier won its 2,000th, has more. But this one wasn't well in hand until the Tar Heels closed the first half with a 17-8 run capped by Graves' 3-pointer 2 seconds before the buzzer. That made it 44-35, their largest lead of a sluggish opening 20 minutes.
They certainly got themselves back on track after halftime, taking their first double-figure lead when Ginyard hit a layup with about 16 1/2 minutes to play to make it 50-39. Davis ended that burst with a free throw that pushed it to 62-39, and Marshall didn't get closer than 18 the rest of the way.
It took a while, but the Tar Heels eventually turned this one into the kind of get-their-groove-back victory they needed after the 103-90 loss to No. 2 Texas in Cowboys Stadium _ their second loss in three games. All three defeats have come against teams currently in the top five.
North Carolina bounced back from the Texas loss with an inspired effort on the boards. Three days after the Longhorns outrebounded them by 21 _ their largest such deficit under coach Roy Williams _ they held a 53-34 advantage on the glass against a Thundering Herd team that started three guards.
Meanwhile, Marshall once again had the misfortune of facing a North Carolina team defending a national championship. Current coach Donnie Jones was a graduate assistant with the Thundering Herd in 1994 when the Tar Heels routed them 116-62.
This one wasn't quite that lopsided, but it did provide a sobering dose of reality for a Marshall team that had won nine of its first 10 games. Three of those wins came against non-Division I teams, and only one of the victories during its streak came outside the state of West Virginia.
Still, the Herd kept up with the Tar Heels for a while. They used an early 13-2 run to give themselves their snapshot moment: Dago Pena's bank shot gave the Herd a 21-17 lead with 8 minutes left in the half.
