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By Sonny Jones

Let’s be honest. The better basketball team won Sunday inside PNC Arena.

Jarkel Joiner scored 20 of his game-high 29 points in the second half as N.C. State pulled away in the final five minutes to deservedly beat North Carolina 77-69.

It was the Wolfpack’s 21st win this season after losing 21 times a season ago as Coach Kevin Keatts made excellent use of the transfer portal to quickly turn around his program. Like it or not, that’s the way it’s done these days. Bring in the likes of Joiner, D.J. Burns Jr. and Jack Clark and team them with returning sophomore Terquavion Smith and you’re set to crack the national rankings.

For the Tar Heels, who were the preseason top-ranked team, they’re left wondering if they’ll make the NCAA tournament after their fifth loss in six games. Who would have thought that prior to the season?

Although the Tar Heels outrebounded N.C. State 48-34, they still were beaten inside and in transition. N.C. State had 46 points in the paint compared to 26 for UNC and 25 fast break points compared to 7 for the Tar Heels. N.C. State shot 45% from the field compared to UNC’s 35%.

The folks in Raleigh celebrate and look forward to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018.

The folks in Chapel Hill ponder whether their team can win the rest of their regular season games and have a nice run in the ACC tournament in order to slip into the NCAA tournament. If not, the Tar Heels will become the first team ranked No. 1 in the preseason not to make the NCAA tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

It has appeared the UNC players have felt they can turn it on when they want after surprisingly reaching the NCAA championship game last season. If that’s the case, the time is now … if it’s not too late.

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