Boopie Miller posted a double-double — 27 points and 12 assists — as SMU dominated the second half en route to a 97-83 win over No. 12 North Carolina on Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference clash in Dallas.
The Mustangs snapped a 12-game losing streak against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 dating to 2022. SMU shot 71.4% from the floor in the second half.
A contentious back-and-forth first half produced a tie game at halftime. The Mustangs (12-2, 1-0) never trailed in the second half, building a 10-point lead six minutes into the half and still were up 69-61 when B.J. Edwards drove to the rim for a layup with 10:09 to play.
The Tar Heels closed to 69-65 on a Seth Trimble free throw with 8:25 remaining, but that’s as close as they would come. SMU expanded its advantage to 15 points when Corey Washington hit a 3-pointer with 4:29 left and was not challenged down the stretch, winning its third straight game.
Washington added 23 points for SMU, with Edwards hitting for 15, Jaron Pierre Jr. 13 and Jaden Toombs 12.
Trimble paced North Carolina (13-2, 1-1) with 22 points. Jarin Stevenson had 16, Henri Veesaar 14 and Caleb Wilson 13 for the Tar Heels, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped.
The Mustangs grabbed the lead early in the game, surging away from a 4-4 tie with a 9-0 run capped by an alley-oop dunk by Edwards off a Miller assist at the 14:03 mark of the first half. North Carolina culled its deficit to 16-12 after Trimble’s pull-up jumper three minutes later before SMU rebuilt its lead to nine points on a jumper by Toombs with 9:05 to play in the half.
The Tar Heels rallied to grab a 31-29 lead via a 13-2 run punctuated by 3-pointer from the top of the key by Veesaar with 4:50 remaining before halftime. The lead changed hands six times through the rest of the half before Miller’s layup with one second to play made the score at 39-39 at the break.
Miller and Stevenson led their respective teams with nine points each before halftime.
SMU went up 60-50 when Toombs worked the lane for a layup off a pass from Samet Yigitoglu with 13:50 to play.
–Field Level Media
