**BREAKING: New-Look Tar Heels Eviscerate NC State 94–68 in Most One-Sided Rivalry Game Since 2009 – December 3, 2025**
**RALEIGH, N.C.** – The Dean E. Smith Center North never felt so small. On a Wednesday night that will be replayed on loop in Chapel Hill for decades, Hubert Davis’s radically re-engineered North Carolina Tar Heels demolished NC State 94–68 in the PNC Arena, handing the Wolfpack their worst home loss to UNC since Roy Williams’s 2009 squad won by 34. The final margin doesn’t even tell the story: Carolina led by 37 with eight minutes left, emptied the bench with 6:12 remaining, and still outscored State 19–9 the rest of the way.
This wasn’t the same Carolina team that started 5–3 and lost back-to-back games to Michigan State and Alabama three weeks ago. This was the version Hubert Davis promised was coming when he blew up the rotation after the Maui debacle: a five-man starting lineup that had never shared the floor together for a single possession before tonight.
The new first unit:
– PG Ian Jackson (freshman, 6-5, 190) – first career start
– SG Cade Tyson (Vanderbilt transfer, 6-7, 215) – first Carolina start
– SF Drake Powell (freshman, 6-7, 195) – first start ever
– PF Jalen Washington (sophomore, 6-10, 230) – first start of the season
– C Ven-Allen Lubin (Vanderbilt transfer, 6-8, 235) – first Carolina start
Zero returning starters from last year’s team that started Armando Bacot, RJ Davis, Cormac Ryan, Harrison Ingram, and Elliot Cadeau. Zero seniors. Average age: 19.8 years old. And they just dropped the most complete performance any UNC team has produced in the Davis era.
The numbers are obscene.
Carolina shot 58.2% from the floor, 14-of-26 from three (53.8%), and assisted on 31 of 39 made baskets. They out-rebounded State 44–23 (19–4 offensive) and turned 19 Wolfpack turnovers into 34 points. The Heels led 52–25 at halftime, a margin so large that the PNC Arena upper deck started emptying before the band finished “Sweet Caroline.”
Ian Jackson, the former No. 2 recruit in America who had been coming off the bench, looked like a man possessed in his first start. The Bronx freshman dropped 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three, in just 24 minutes. He scored Carolina’s first nine points, turned Marcus Hill into a traffic cone on three straight possessions, and then stared down the State student section after a windmill dunk that brought even the red-clad fans to their feet in stunned applause.
“I told Coach after Maui I was ready,” Jackson said postgame, ice bag on his knee and a grin the size of Tobacco Road. “He finally believed me.”
Cade Tyson, the sharp-shooting transfer who chose Carolina over Kentucky and Kansas, went 6-of-8 from three and finished with 20 points in 21 minutes. The 6-7 sniper who once torched UNC for 31 at Memorial Gym looked right at home in powder blue, celebrating every make with the “too small” gesture toward the Wolfpack bench.
But the story was size, length, and chaos. Drake Powell, the springy wing from Pittsboro, blocked four shots, grabbed eight rebounds, and guarded everyone from 6-2 guards to 7-footer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. Jalen Washington, finally healthy after two injury-plagued seasons, posted a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double before checking out with 12 minutes left. Lubin, the Vanderbilt big who followed Tyson through the portal, had 12 points, six rebounds, and three steals in 18 minutes of pure controlled violence.
Hubert Davis, in his fourth year, has never smiled wider after a road game. “That group has been begging for this opportunity,” he said, voice cracking slightly. “We’re not the same team that lost in Maui. We’re faster, longer, more connected, and tonight the world saw it.”
The turning point came with 15:31 left in the first half. State, trailing 11–9, had all the momentum after a Breon Pass three. Hubert called timeout, inserted the all-new lineup cold off the bench, and Carolina responded with a 28–4 run over the next eight minutes. By the time Kevin Keatts called his third timeout, the Heels led 39–13 and the Wolfpack looked shell-shocked.
Elliot Cadeau, last year’s starting point guard and presumed starter again this season, never checked in until garbage time. RJ Davis, Carolina’s all-time leading scorer and reigning ACC Player of the Year, watched the entire second half in warm-ups after playing just eight first-half minutes. Both players stood and cheered louder than anyone on the bench.
“This isn’t about who starts,” RJ Davis told reporters afterward. “This is about who finishes. And right now, this group is finishing at a different level.”
For NC State, the loss drops them to 6–4 (0–1 ACC) and raises serious questions about a team that returned almost everyone from last year’s Final Four squad. Keatts, now 4–15 against Tobacco Road opponents in Raleigh, was blunt: “They were bigger, faster, and played harder than us for 40 minutes. That’s not scheme. That’s identity, and right now they have it and we don’t.”
The stat sheet reads like a video game. Carolina’s bench outscored State’s 41–12. The Heels had 19 offensive rebounds to State’s four defensive rebounds in the first half alone. Seth Trimble, the only returning rotation player from last year’s starting five, played 14 minutes and still managed 11 points and four steals.
As the final seconds ticked off, the few thousand Carolina fans who made the 28-mile trip began the familiar chant: “Tar!” … “Heels!” The Wolfpack faithful had long since headed for the exits.
Next up: No. 12 Alabama on Saturday in the ACC/SEC Challenge, a rematch of the Sweet 16 loss that ended last season. Only this time, the Tar Heels aren’t the plodding, paint-bound team that got run off the floor in Phoenix. This is a new animal.
Hubert Davis summed it up best in the tunnel: “We’re just getting started.”
Final score again: North Carolina 94, NC State 68.
Largest margin of victory in the rivalry since February 21, 2009.
Largest margin ever in PNC Arena history.
The new era of Carolina basketball didn’t knock on the door tonight.
It kicked it down.
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