IOWA CITY, IA – North Carolina overcame one long Iowa run but couldn’t do so a second time, as the No. 3 Hawkeyes pulled away for a 93-80 victory on Tuesday night in the AC/Big Ten Challenge at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa opened up with a 25-9 lead and later used a 14-0 run to gain separation late to earn the win. UNC was led by Garrison Brooks’ 17 points. Day’Ron Sharpe added 13, RJ Davis 12, Caleb Love 11 and Andrew Platek had 10.

The No. 16 Tar Heels fell to 3-2 while the Hawkeyes improved to 4-0.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss at Iowa:

One of the decisions staffs facing Iowa must make is how to juggle dealing with what Luka Garza can do down low and the skills of the Hawkeyes’ perimeter guys. It’s extremely difficult and is a reason Iowa is one of the best teams in the nation.

UNC did a nice job on Garza in the first half (six points, two field goals), but didn’t getting out on the perimeter shooters. As a result, Iowa drained 11 shots from 3-point range in the first half, including seven of its first 11 from outside. Most were lightly contested at best. Most also came after multiple passes. The Hawkeyes had the Heels chasing the ball way too much.

There were times it appeared with a squinted eye Iowa may have been running dummy offense on the perimeter. The Heels struggled defending the Hawkeyes’ swinging the ball around always finding the open man.

“They moved the ball very well, got open looks,” RJ Davis said. “We had a little miscommunication on a couple of switches and down screens.”

For the game, Iowa hit 17 of 40 attempts from beyond the arc, with many in the second half, and all 17 threes were by the guys the Heels knew would shoot them: Jordan Bohannon (seven); CJ Frederick (five) and Joe Wieskamp (five).

UNC Coach Roy Williams said it’s not as much about contending the shots, it’s about not letting their shooters get the shots.

“You’ve got to deny the pass,” Williams said. “I said earlier, we were not trying to double down on Garza, we were trying to play everybody head up on the perimeter so if a ball’s on top of the key, then don't let your man get it. I mean, it was one of the key ones down there, we just allowed the ball to come out of the corner up to a guy and you should always be able to deny that pass. So, we’ve got to do a better job of allowing them to swing it from side to side.

“So, I’d say number one would be the one pass away, you’ve got to deny that. And then there's three different occasions tonight that we started to try to jam in on the post, even though we kept reminding them that we're not doing that, And you know what that means? I've got to do a better job in practice to get them to understand what we're saying. But, if teams are shooting 3-point shots, then get your tail out there and guard them.”

Iowa closed the first half by draining a long 3-pointer for a 43-31 lead. It took some of the shine off a UNC run that turned a 16-point deficit into a nine-point game before that trifecta. But, instead of allowing that basket – and the 10 other threes the Hawkeyes hit in the half – to carry over into the second half, the Tar Heels erupted out of the gate to start the second period, getting dunks on their first three field goals – the second and third were eight game seconds apart, and UNC’s next two buckets were layups.

Carolina got the ball inside, was the aggressor making Iowa defend everywhere on the court, including the perimeter as Caleb Love and Leaky Black drained threes 38 seconds apart cutting the score to 48-42.

The push continued with the Heels going inside again with a short jumper by Black, a jumper by Garrison Brooks and consecutive layups by freshman Day’Ron Sharpe. A three by freshman Kerwin Walton and a nice stretch by Andrew Platek, including a three and a driving layup, had the Heels in the lead at 68-67 with 9:30 left.

UNC outscored Iowa 37-24 over the first 10:30 of the second half and was in position to win. It can't change what happened afterward, but the Heels can build on how they opened the second half.

Brooks said the Tar Heels were the “aggressor” to open the second half, and later he was asked to elaborate on that.

“Getting the ball to the rim,” he replied. “I think most of our points came at the rim at the beginning of the second half, and I think it’s something that we had an advantage of from the beginning of the game.”

After having just one assist against nine turnovers in UNC’s last two games, a win over Stanford and loss to Texas in the Maui Invitational last week, the freshman point guard was obviously more intent on getting teammates involved and being more of a true point guard Tuesday night.

His high before Tuesday was four assists, and here in Iowa City, Love had six assists. RJ Davis had eight, as well, as the Tar Heels assisted on 22 of 31 field goals. Through its first four games, Carolina had an un-Carolina-like 40 assists on 101 baskets, so the Heels were far more what has long been the norm for the program.

Sharing the ball, awareness of where teammates were and a focus on getting the ball inside were emphasized during the game, especially a stretch of 18:14 spanning both halves in which the Tar Heels scored 53 points.

“Yeah, I think we did…,” Williams said. “I was about to die in Asheville because we didn't have an assist for like the first 17 minutes a game. I've never had that. But, we did share the ball better. But late, after the early part of the game, we started getting it inside better where we felt like we had more of an advantage.”

As for Love, it was a clear step forward. The naked eyes says so and so do the numbers.

“Caleb was great for us today,” Brooks said. “He makes strides every game, and I think he’s going to keep getting better every day.”

When Andrew Platek converted a driving layup from the right baseline to give UNC a 68-67 lead with 9:30 remaining, Carolina had seized control of the game and appeared primed to take this thing to the wire, at the very least. Platek was on a nice personal stretch and the Tar Heels were really playing well. But just like that, Iowa found its stroke and groove again, and the Hawkeyes went on a 14-0 run over the next 2:33 and the Heels were replaying catch-up the rest of the way.

So, what happened?

“Carelessness, mistakes,” Davis said. “We’ve got to fix the mistakes. It’s still early in the season. We’re still preaching the same thing: limiting our turnovers, knowing what’s a good shot and bad shot, our shot selection.”

As much as Iowa’s perimeter shooting crushed the Tar Heels here, how about these two stats to really put the dagger in them: Iowa had 23 points off of 18 UNC turnovers and 21 second-chance points to Carolina’s 14. And the Hawkeyes did that grabbing one fewer offensive board than UNC (15-14). So think about it, that’s 44 points right there. UNC, by the way, had nine points off of Iowa’s 11 turnovers.

Some of Iowa’s points after UNC miscues and on second-chance opportunities were threes, so the three things that really hurt Carolina tonight found a convergence of sorts enough to seal its fate.