North Carolina 74, N.C. State 61

Larry Drew II had 15 points and North Carolina snapped its four-game losing streak by beating North Carolina State 74-61 on Saturday.

Deon Thompson added 12 points for the Tar Heels (14-11, 3-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), who gained some measure of relief with their first victory since beating the Wolfpack nearly three weeks ago. It was also their first home win since beating Virginia Tech more than a month ago.

But more importantly, the victory kept the defending national champions from doing something unthinkable in the preseason: falling into last place in the ACC standings with just a handful of games left to play.

Instead, that dishonor fell to N.C. State (14-12, 2-9), which lost its fourth straight game overall and its eighth in a row to the Tar Heels.