No. 3 North Carolina 76, Wake Forest 55

1/31/2008 9:35 PM

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -North Carolina hasn't had it easy the last two weeks, and Wake Forest didn't make things any easier.

LaToya Pringle scored 23 points as the No. 3 Tar Heels pulled away in the second half to beat the pesky Demon Deacons 76-56 Thursday night.

Cetera DeGraffenreid added 15 points, Rashanda McCants 14 and Jessica Breland 10 for North Carolina (19-2, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which led by just eight points at the half.

``We started off not real good, but we finally got going,'' Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell said. ``I'm glad for the win. It was another tough ACC game. Now we start getting ready for (No. 9) Duke (on Monday).''

Corinne Groves scored 16 points, Alex Tchangoue 14 and Christen Brown 10 for Wake Forest (13-10, 0-8), which shot less than 39 percent and committed 22 turnovers in losing its 25th consecutive league game.

``I'm not disappointed, because they're No. 3 in the nation,'' Tchangoue said. ``I'm happy with our effort. Of course, I wish we could've won, but we learned something - we showed that we can compete with anybody. ... If we play like this from now on, we're going to win.''

North Carolina entered Thursday's game coming off two rough games, an 81-72 road loss to No. 1 Connecticut on Jan. 21 and a 97-86 double-overtime win over then-No. 4 Maryland five days later.

``It's been a tough stretch, but you can't overlook a team like Wake Forest,'' Hatchell said. ``On any given night, especially on their home court, anybody can beat you. We certainly weren't overlooking them, and we weren't looking ahead to Duke.''

But the Tar Heels had their problems in the first half with the Demon Deacons, who had lost seven of their last eight games and not won an ACC game in nearly three years.

With all-ACC forward Erlana Larkins drawing double teams inside, Wake Forest scored seven of the game's first eight points in the first 3 minutes and led three other times during the half, the last at 24-23 on Groves' layup with 7:37 left.

But 17 seconds later, the Tar Heels went ahead for good, with DeGraffenreid's breakaway steal and layup putting them up 25-24.

North Carolina then closed the half with a 13-6 run - capped by Pringle's tip-in with 1 second remaining - to go ahead 38-30 at the break.

``They were really trapping (Larkins) aggressively,'' Pringle said. ``We had to dribble out, and sometimes we'd get stuck in the corner. But in the second half, we figured out where I needed to be so she could find me on the double teams. It was all about communicating ... and we did a better job of that in the second half.''

The Tar Heels opened the second half with a 13-7 run to take their first double-digit lead, with McCants' layup with 15:07 left putting North Carolina ahead 51-37.

The Demon Deacons managed to pull to 53-44 on Tchangoue's 3-pointer with 11:21 left, but North Carolina put up 10 consecutive points - capped by McCants' layup with 8:38 left - to take command.

Just after McCants' layup, Wake Forest forward Brittany Waters collapsed on the court. She was motionless for several minutes while being tended to by team medical personnel, then was transported to Baptist Hospital.

``She just passed out ... but she didn't hit her head,'' Demon Deacons assistant coach Natasha Adair said. ``She's OK. She was talking to us as she was being taken out.''

The Tar Heels took their biggest lead late in the second half, going up by 23 points twice, the last time at 76-53 on Trinity Bursey's jumper with 32.4 seconds remaining.