CORAL GABLES, FL – North Carolina won for the second consecutive game getting a driving layup along the right side by a veteran after Andrew Platek’s baseline drive fell through the cylinder with three seconds left giving the Tar Heels a 67-65 victory over Miami on Tuesday night at Watsco Center.

Carolina trailed the Hurricanes 59-50 with 7:35 left but then clamped down on defense, holding the Canes to just one more field goal the rest of the way and outscoring Miami 17-6 to close the game.

UNC was led by Leaky Black who had 16 points and nine rebounds. Kerwin Walton added 13, Day’Ron Sharpe finished with 12 and Platek scored seven points for the Heels.

UNC improved to 7-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC while the Hurricanes dropped to 4-5 and 0-4.

Here are 6 Takeaways from UNC’s win at Miami:

The Hurricnaes appeared in control when Isaiah Wong's jumper with 7:35 left gave Miami a 59-50 lead. But the next time the Canes converted from the field was a falling shot in the lane also by Wong with 14 seconds remaining to tie the score at 65-65. Miami was 1-for-10 from the field to close the contest, and much of it had to do with UNC’s defense.

The Tar Heels picked up their energy near the mid-point of the half, commanded by Roy Williams, and they got even more focused over those final seven-plus minutes. They appeared to communicate more, rotated better, stayed in front of their men more, and boxed a lot with rgeter frequency than earlier in the half.

Their defense was terrific down the stretch.

“I told them again, I said, ‘Okay, let's win this four minutes,’” UNC Coach Roy Williams said, when asked if the increased energy was translated to better defense down the stretch. “And then I think we did win that four minutes. But, we did get some stops down on defense. They missed a couple of easy ones. They missed a free throw, I think two or maybe two, but I think that helped us…

“So, I would probably agree and say, yeah, that our defense was something during that stretch that we did some good things. But, yes, they missed some shots, too.”

The junior had perhaps the best game of his UNC career leading the Tar Heels with 16 points, including hitting all four of his 3-point attempts, and he grabbed nine rebounds, handed out three assists, had two steals and even blocked a shot. Without him, Carolina wouldn’t have been anywhere near Miami in this game.

Not only was it Black’s career-high at UNC, but look at when he scored: a 3-pointer to open the game for a 3-0 lead; three for a 27-25 UNC lead; a three cutting the margin to 41-40 Miami; a jumper stopping the bleeding and a Miami run to make it 49-43; a layup after his own steal cutting the Canes’ lead to 53-48; and finally, a three that put UNC out front 63-61 with 1:42 left and capping a 13-2 run.

“I think it’s just confidence,” Black said about his performance. “I don't think we could play any worse than what we did in the NC State game or last year, so I feel like you’ve just gotta have confidence. North Carolina’s gonna have a game and we need to score some points. So, I felt like it was just my night.”

Once a norm for Carolina under Williams, these days it’s rare when the Tar Heels get easy buckets. Eleven games in, they just don’t get quick, open looks with conversions. Their ball movement doesn’t make defenses move as designed because opposing base defenses just aren't stressed by the Tar Heels. At times, Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe have caused trouble for defenses, and when Kerwin Walton is ripping runs of threes defenses appear more helpless during those stretches than anything else.

Otherwise, UNC has been poor in too many areas

The Heels don’t have a slasher, aren’t very good with entries to the post, and while they do swing the ball fairly well, they too often don’t get much from it, as noted above.

That was again the case here against the Hurricanes. Carolina got few easy buckets, as evidenced by their 12-for-41 shooting INSIDE the arc. UNC managed just eight layups and dunks combined, shooting a paltry 8-for-20 on those attempts.

It starts in the backcourt, though, with freshmen RJ Davis and Caleb Love. They run the point and also take a lot of shots. Williams is starting to lean harder and harder on them, trying to push them to perform at a higher clip.

“I've always said, ‘If my point guards will stay in front of the ball and not turn it over, I can stick with them for anything,’” Williams said. “They're both shooting the ball terribly and they're good shooters. But this is not kindergarten basketball. I can't say, ‘Oh, you're doing great. You're shooting 28 percent, God that's fantastic,’ or anything.

“Sometimes you’ve got to man up and start making shots and that's what they have to do to get their entire game going because they focus so much on their shots going in.

If and when Love and Davis find their shots, it’s probable they will show improvement at the other areas of the game.

Note: UNC has won three times this season while scoring fewer than 70 points and have hit the 80-point mark just once, in a 93-80 loss at Iowa.

Whoever would have thought the Tar Heels would ever convert more threes in a half than field goals inside the arc, especially as poorly as they’ve shot from the perimeter for most of the season? But that was the case in the first half, as five of the Heels’ nine field goals were from beyond the arc.

Leaky Black was 2-for-2, Kerwin Walton 2-for-3 and Andrew Platek 1-for-2. The Heels were 5-for-11 from beyond the arc in the half and just 4-for-18 inside the arc.

For the game, Carolina was 9-for-20 from beyond the arc but, as noted above, a woeful 12-for-41 inside the 3-point circle.

In fact, UNC has converted eight, eight and nine threes over its last three contests, respectfully, converting 39.7 percent. And in their last two games, the Heels are an unimaginable 28-for-87 from inside the arc, which is 32.2 percent.

Threes can be the result of excellent offensive player and ball movement, or sometimes they can gloss over poor offense. Carolina has needed every one of its perimeter buckets the last two games, and maybe this might be more who the Heels are.

“We're really good shooters,” Platek said. “I think if you put any of us in a gym with anybody in the country, I think we can outshoot them like anywhere. But this is more of what we know we can do and it's like, we don't even have everyone shooting well…

“Yes, we can make shots and we're gonna do that the rest of the year, it just takes time.”

Back to the offensive issues, when a team turns it over 20 times in a night, it cannot be ignored, and that’s what the Tar Heels did. Twenty turnovers leading to 19 Miami points, which is the range the Heels have been for now eight of their 11 contests. And it’s not just sloppy ballhandling.

The Heels had offensive fouls and the rotation of big Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot and Sharpe combined for six turnovers, but it seemed like more. RJ Davis and Caleb Love combined for seven turnovers. In all, Carolina averaged turning over the ball on 26.7 percent of its possessions. Even though the Heels got away with it on this night, that’s just not winning basketball.