SPARTANBURG, S.C. _ North Carolina guard Kenny Williams said after last season's loss to Wofford at home, that he learned that the Tar Heels could never take another opponent lightly.
Especially against Wofford, which UNC faced in its season-opener on the road on Tuesday night.
Wofford, intent on showing the world that its win over the then fifth-ranked Tar Heels last season at the Dean Smith Center was no fluke, gave UNC all it could handle at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. At one point, Wofford trimmed UNC's lead to three points with eight minutes left to play.
But Tar Heels withstood the Terriers' push, and went on a run of their own to win, 78-67.
Senior forward Luke Maye led all scorers with 22 points.
Cam Johnson, who was fairly quiet in the first half, went off in the second half. He hit three clutch 3-pointers, all from around the same spot to help extend the Tar Heels lead. He finished with 17 points.
The Terriers (0-1), who returned four of their five starters from last year's team, appeared confident they would win. And the crowd, which cheered loudly, did too. But in the end, the Tar Heels were too much.
UNC (1-0) found a way to slow down Wofford's best player, Fletcher MaGee, who had 27 points in its win last year. He had 21 points on Tuesday, but was 3-for-16 from behind the 3-point line.
Both teams started the game out shaky. Wofford missed its first six shots, and committed three turnovers. UNC started out 2-for-6 and committed four turnovers.
After nearly six minutes, the score was only tied 6-6. But Maye got hot, and the Tar Heels went on an 18-6 run over the next seven minutes to lead 24-12. But Wofford never went away.
It was MaGee's 3-pointer with about eight minutes left to play brought the score to 54-51.
But Maye knocked down three free throws, and graduate forward Cam Johnson hit a 3-pointer on UNC's next two offensive possessions to extend UNC's lead 60-51.
And UNC cruised from there.
