Larry Drew had 18 points for the Tarheels and Deron Thompson added 14 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge game that was also a rematch of the 2009 NCAA championship game.
North Carolina (7-1) hit 21-of -33 shots in the first half en route to a 16-point lead at intermission and shot 57.9-percent for the entire game.
Raymae Morgan led Michigan State (5-2) with 18 points and Durrell Summers had 16. The Spartans, who shot 43 percent from the field, were hampered by a cold 2-of-20 from beyond the arc.
The Spartans finally got their deficit under double digits with less than 9 minutes remaining when Morgan put in a layup for a 72-63 margin. UNC, though, kept the Spartans at arm's length the rest of the way thanks, in part, to Michigan State's struggles from the field.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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