CHAPEL HILL – On a night when North Carolina wasn’t shooting the ball well, the Tar Heels turned to their defense to ignite a decisive run to pull away from Harvard on Wednesday at the Smith Center.

For much of UNC’s 77-57 victory, it battled its own offensive struggles which helped keep the Crimson within striking distance. In fact, Harvard found itself trailing just 44-39 with 16:24 left in the game, but then the Heels, who were pretty effective in the first half on defense, really dialed in.

Starting at that point until the 6:20 mark left in the game, UNC went on a 22-3 run that stretched its lead to 66-42 virtually ending Harvard’s hopes of an upset. The Crimson, who shot just 38.9 percent from the field on the night, missed 11 straight shots during that span.

During that 10-minute span, UNC shot just 4 of 10 from the floor but was 12-14 from the free throw line. While the 86 percent shooting from the charity stripe certainly helped, there were other factors that led to their success.

“I think during that stretch we got some stops defensively with our switching,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said. “They turned it over a couple times and we came down and got good shots and they went in for us. We didn't rebound the ball nearly as well as I thought we should have but I think, during that stretch, it was those things right there.”

Playing without sophomore big man Sterling Manley, who sat out due to soreness in his left knee, forced UNC to play a smaller lineup for larger periods of the game. They also regularly switched on ball screens in the second half, which was a more efficient approach with smaller, more agile lineups on the floor against an athletic, but undersized, Harvard team.

“I feel like, to a certain extent, our switching has been better,” freshman point guard Coby White said. “I think it was better tonight especially since we didn't have Sterling. We had a lot of times where we had a small five out there and we could all switch it. So, I think that tonight it (switching) definitely benefited us well.”

Switching wasn’t the only reason things went well after Williams made the adjustment.

“Part of it was out effort,” senior guard Kenny Williams said. “We were paying attention to detail and everyone was locked in and I think that’s how we were able to get on that run.”

Now, the Tar Heels must prepare for the start of ACC play on Saturday afternoon at Pittsburgh. Regardless of their success in spurts against Harvard, they still must improve on both ends of the court if they want to compete for a conference title.

“(We’re) nowhere near (where I want us to be), not in the same frickin’ universe,” Roy Williams said. “We’ve got to get better defensively and stop turning the ball over.”

If UNC can do those things - and put together consistent runs like they did against Harvard - maybe the universe their coach eluded to isn’t that far away after all.