Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Montrezl Harrell had 22 points and 15 rebounds and No. 10 Louisville rallied from 18 down in the second half to beat No. 13 North Carolina 78-68 in overtime on Saturday.
Louisville outscored the North Carolina 53-25 over the last 22 1/2 minutes of the game to snap a six-game Tar Heels winning streak that began with a one- point victory over the Cardinals in Chapel Hill on Jan. 10.
"They kicked our rear ends," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "The second half was not a very good basketball game on our side."
Terry Rozier added 22 points and 10 rebounds, scoring eight in overtime to help Louisville (18-3, 6-2 ACC) pick up its third consecutive win since a loss to Duke two weeks ago.
Chris Jones scored seven of his 17 points in overtime for the Cardinals.
Marcus Paige had 15 points to lead North Carolina (17-5, 7-2) and J.P. Tokoto added 11 with 11 rebounds. Brice Johnson had two points and 10 rebounds before fouling out.
The Tar Heels shot 43.3 percent from the field, down from a 50.8 percent mark during their winning streak.
They are 0-3 all-time against the Cardinals in Louisville, also losing games in 1929 and 1999.
Louisville trailed by 18 two minutes into the second half but was within eight after Harrell stretched back to catch a lob pass from Jones and threw down a muscular one-handed alley-oop dunk.
"He was possessed," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said of Harrell's play in the second half. "He played a lot of minutes, he was possessed, but it doesn't surprise me."
The dunk stirred the home crown and forced North Carolina to call a timeout with 12:34 remaining in regulation.
Later, Rozier and Jones knocked down consecutive 3s and Harrell was fouled hard but completed a three-point play to cap a 9-0 run that tied the score for Louisville with 8:20 remaining.
The Cardinals never took the lead in the second half and the score remained tied at 60-60 for the final 3:13 of regulation.
Louisville had a good chance to win it, but Jones dribbled the ball too long up top and the best the Cardinals could do was Harrell's 3-point try at the buzzer, which hit off the back of the rim.
Rozier's layup to make it 62-60 in overtime gave the Cardinals their first lead since 10-7. Wayne Blackshear scored his first points to make it 69-64 in the midst of a 10-0 Louisville run that put the game away.
North Carolina held Louisville under 26 percent shooting in the first half and pushed its lead to 14 late in the period with a 9-2 run capped by back-to-back jumpers from Kennedy Meeks.
The Tar Heels outrebounded the Cardinals 27-16 in the half and held a 36-25 lead at the break.
Game Notes
Justin Jackson and Nate Britt scored 10 apiece for North Carolina. Britt fouled out ... The Tar Heels lead the all-time series against Louisville 10-4 ... North Carolina hosts No. 2 Virginia on Monday ... Louisville plays at Miami on Tuesday.
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