No. 3 North Carolina beats Boston College 79-66

BOSTON -- Luke Maye scored 17 points and added a career-high 20 rebounds on Tuesday night to lead No. 3 North Carolina to a 79-66 victory over Boston College and preserve the Tar Heels' hopes for a regular-season conference title.

Cameron Johnson scored 22 with 12 rebounds for Carolina (25-5, 15-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), which won its sixth straight game and went unbeaten on the road in the league for the first time since 2008. The Tar Heels finish up on Saturday at home against archrival and fourth-ranked Duke, which escaped with a 71-70 victory over Wake Forest on Tuesday.

No. 2 Virginia is also 15-2 in the conference, with its finale against Louisville.

Ky Bowman scored 23 points with nine rebounds and Nik Popovic scored 20 for Boston College, which has not beaten the Tar Heels in 12 tries since 2010. The Eagles (14-15, 5-12) have lost four of their past five games overall, and eight of their past 11.

The game was tied 16-all before the Tar Heels ran off 12 straight points, holding BC without a basket for more than five minutes. In all, Carolina scored 32 of the last 41 points in the first to head into halftime with a 48-25 lead.

The Tar Heels led by as many as 25 points early in the second half and led 63-42 with 12 minutes left before Bowman hit a 3-pointer and Popovic scored twice from the inside to make it a 14-point game. But Johnson scored in the lane, Carolina scored on back-to-back fast breaks and then Kenny Williams made a layup to open a 22-point lead.

Carolina has won six straight and 13 of 14, finishing 11-1 on the road.

BIG PICTURE

North Carolina: Needs to beat Duke to share the regular-season ACC title; a Blue Devils win would give them a chance to share the title.

Boston College: The Eagles had a chance to play spoiler and ruin the Tar Heels' chance at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Instead, BC needs a win in the finale and in the conference tournament to finish .500.

UP NEXT

North Carolina: hosts No. 4 Duke in regular-season finale on Saturday.

Boston College: Finishes its season at home against North Carolina State.

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