Texas Longhorns vs North Carolina Tar Heels Box Score on Dec 02, 2020

Matt Coleman III made the game-winning basket with 0.1 of a second remaining as No. 17 Texas won the Maui Invitational for the first time by defeating No. 14 North Carolina 69-67 on Wednesday in Asheville, N.C.

The title game was tightly contested down the stretch, but North Carolina missed some late free throws and the Longhorns pulled out the victory.

Coleman finished with 22 points and Courtney Ramey added 13 points for the Longhorns.

Texas led 40-28 at halftime after leading by as many as 16 points in the first half. The Tar Heels had a good stretch early in the second half to move within two points.

Greg Brown had 10 points for the Longhorns (4-0), who never before finished better than third place in five all-time entries in the tournament.

Garrison Brooks had 18 points, R.J. Davis scored 11 and Armando Bacot posted 10 points and 12 rebounds for North Carolina (3-1).

The Tar Heels managed only 1-for-9 shooting on 3-pointers.

Ramey and Coleman were the only Texas scorers during a second-half stretch of more than 10 minutes when the Longhorns were barely clinging to leads.

North Carolina was aiming for its fifth Maui Invitational title. In eight appearances in the event, the Tar Heels have been in the final seven times. A victory would have been the first regular-season tournament title for North Carolina since winning the Maui Invitational early in the 2016-17 season.

The Longhorns hold a 9-3 series lead on North Carolina, winning five straight meetings. It's the highest winning percentage for an opponent the Tar Heels have faced at least 10 times.

This was just the second neutral-court matchup between the teams in a 10-season span. The Tar Heels are just 1-8 vs. Texas under coach Roy Williams.

Texas and North Carolina were the only nationally ranked teams in this year's tournament.

The eight-team, three-day tournament has been a staple on the November schedule, though normally held on Thanksgiving week in Hawaii. Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the later-than-usual start to the college basketball season, it was pushed back a week and relocated to this mountain city in western North Carolina, where snow fell this week.

Williams grew up in Asheville, but a home-state advantage for the Tar Heels didn't figure to be a factor because fans weren't permitted to attend the tournament games.

--Field Level Media