An even greater emphasis on the interior helped North Carolina end its first losing streak of the season, and sticking with that plan could be its best bet for boomeranging right into a winning streak.
Pittsburgh is as vulnerable inside the arc as Boston College, so the 12th-ranked Tar Heels could again find themselves taking advantage underneath against a Panthers team in the middle of a daunting five-game stretch.
North Carolina's Isaiah Hicks and Brice Johnson combined for 41 in last Saturday's 79-68 road win over the Eagles, and it wasn't uncalculated. The forward duo overlapped plenty, with Hicks making his second start of the season and scoring a career-high 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Johnson's 20 came on 9 of 14 as the team finished at 56.9 percent, and Marcus Paige was the only player to attempt a 3-pointer. The junior went 1 of 5 from beyond the arc but 4 of 4 from inside it as the Tar Heels scored 46 points in the paint.
"We switched rotation with our bigs because we saw some things and we thought we could take advantage of it with Brice and Isaiah at the same time," Paige said.
"Usually (Isaiah) plays behind Brice and doesn't get as many opportunities offensively. Today, we played them together and he showed us he's capable of being a real threat inside."
North Carolina (18-6, 8-3 ACC) wasn't bad from long range by its relatively low standards in losses at Louisville and at home against Virginia, combining for 9 of 25 (36.0 percent), but it decided to focus even less on the perimeter - where it attempts just 13.8 3s per game, tied with Pitt for the fewest in the conference.
"When you lose two in a row you can't say everything's rosy," said Roy Williams, whose team will complete a three-game road stretch at Duke on Wednesday. "I wasn't going to panic. I wasn't going to jump off a building, but you had to try something different."
Pitt's 2-point defending ranks 14th in the ACC at 49.7 percent, which is ahead of only Wake Forest (51.2) and nearly identical to Boston College (49.6).
That was evident in Wednesday's 69-56 loss at No. 9 Louisville as the Cardinals attempted just four 3-pointers and became the fourth straight team to shoot at least 50 percent against the Panthers, who led by six midway through the second half.
"Every team, even great defensive teams go through stretches where the other team shoots well," coach Jamie Dixon said. "We know what our weakness is. It's pretty obvious. Especially when you compare it to other teams in the past here."
Pitt (16-9, 5-6) is two games into a potentially resume-defining stretch that started with last Saturday's 83-77 home win over Syracuse before the Louisville loss ended its winning streak at three. After hosting the Tar Heels, the Panthers visit No. 2 Virginia on Tuesday and Syracuse next Saturday.
"We've put ourselves in position where we've got to win some games down the stretch," said Dixon, whose team beat then-No. 8 Notre Dame last month but has lost its other four against the Top 25 by double digits. "No one can fall apart here at the end. We're in position. We've got some good wins but quality wins are what we need to have and what we need to do."
Another quality win will likely take some offensive improvement after Pitt shot 37.7 percent against Louisville.
The teams split two games a season ago with North Carolina winning 75-71 in Chapel Hill on Feb. 15 before the Panthers beat the Tar Heels 80-75 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. This is UNC's first visit to Pittsburgh since the 1995-96 season.
Paige averaged 22.5 points while hitting 9 of 18 from 3-point range, while Pitt's James Robinson managed 19 in the win.
