North Carolina’s defense did not perform well Saturday, but it did rise up and make some key late stops, which was enough to allow its powerful offense to spurt past No. 9 Wake Forest for a 58-55 victory.

The Tar Heels trailed 45-27 midway through the third quarter, but the defense got three straight stops on the Demon Deacons while the offense kept scoring, eventually using a 31-3 run to take a 10-point lead late in the contest.

The Tar Heels improved to 5-4 while Wake dropped to 8-1.