Chapel Hill, N.C. – Dawson Garcia and Armando Bacot both had double-doubles to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels to a 74-61 victory over the Furman men's basketball team on Tuesday evening inside the Dean E. Smith Center.

Furman drops to 7-4 on the season while North Carolina improves to 8-2 overall.

Alex Hunter scored a game high 21 points to lead the Paladins offensively on 8-of-14 shooting and 4-of-8 behind the 3-point line. Jalen Slawson contributed 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals. Mike Bothwell poured in nine points and three assists.

Dawson scored a team high 20 points for the Tar Heels on 7-of-12 shooting and registered 10 rebounds. Bacot added 14 points, also on 7-of-12 shooting, and 12 rebounds. Brady Manek recorded 13 points and Caleb Love 10. RJ Davis dished out seven assists.

Furman was limited to just 9-of-32 shooting in the second half including a 2-of-18 mark from behind the 3-point line.

North Carolina opened the second half outscoring the Paladins 20-8 over the first 6:48 and held a 59-47 lead with 13:12 remaining. Neither team scored for nearly two minutes until a pair of free throws by Bothwell cut the Paladins' deficit down to 59-49 at the 11:20 mark. Joe Anderson's 3-pointer with 9:00 to go kept Furman within 11 points at 63-52.

The Tar Heels broke the game open courtesy of an 11-0 run, covering 6:03, and took their largest lead of the game, 74-52, with 2:57 left. The Paladins scored the game's final nine points with Bothwell picking up four on back-to-back layups. James Repass' layup with three seconds to go put the final score at 74-61.

Furman connected on 15 of its 28 field goal attempts, highlighted by an 8-of-15 mark from 3-point range, in the first half with Hunter and Slawson combining for 27 of the team's 39 points.

Garcia collected the first seven points of the game for North Carolina as part of a 7-0 run. The Tar Heels led by as many as eight points twice in the first half, with the last coming at 13-5 with 15:51 left. Trailing 19-12 at the 13:54 mark, Hunter and Marcus Foster scored five consecutive points to cut North Carolina's lead down to 19-17 nearly three minutes later.

The Paladins got to within one point three times before taking their first lead of the game, 36-34, at the 3:26 mark following Hunter's 3-pointer. Bothwell kept Furman in front by two, 39-37, less than two minutes later after his triple. Garcia made two free throws with 1:26 left to tie the game at 39-39, which remained the score heading into halftime.

The Paladins concluded the game shooting 40.0 percent (24-of-60) from the field.

Furman remains on the road Friday evening when it travels to Starkville, Miss. for a 7 p.m. tipoff against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on the SEC Network.