Julie Jacobson / AP

North Carolina's Marcus Ginyard drives against Ohio State's Dallas Lauderdale. Ginyard and the Heels won Thursday's game, 77-73.

Larry Drew II, who missed four of his previous six free throws in the final minute, then made two from the line with 11 seconds left for the final margin.

“I wanted the ball in my hands, especially for the last two free throws,” Drew said. “You have to go through bad times to enjoy the highs, and I enjoyed making those last two free throws.”

Ohio State chipped away at the lead and was finally within single digits when David Lighty scored on a drive that made it 68-60 with 2:09 to go. Ginyard hit a 3 with the shot clock winding down to make it 71-60 with 1:36 to go, but the Buckeyes finally hit from the outside as William Buford and Lighty hit 3s as Drew struggled at the line.

Will Graves had 14 points for North Carolina, the defending national champions who have only one starter back from the team that beat Michigan State in April, and Drew finished with 11 points and eight assists and was 6 of 10 from the line.

Diebler had 17 points for Ohio State, which finished 6 of 21 from 3-point range after going 1 of 10 in the first half.

“We feel very fortunate,” Williams said. “We have a chance to be a very good basketball team, but I want it a lot sooner than it’s coming.”

The Tar Heels had the lead to 10 points within the first 6 minutes, and it reached 16 points three times, the first at 29-13 on a 3-pointer by Ginyard with 5:40 left in the half.

Ohio State missed its first nine 3-point attempts, and the Buckeyes finished 1 of 10 from beyond the arc and shot just 29 percent (9 for 31) overall in falling behind 38-24 at the half.

“We obviously made a great comeback,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “I thought the first half we couldn’t get the ball in the basket. We had some decent looks, the shots weren’t falling for us. We had a stretch where I think we lost our composure, and they were able to get it to a double-digit lead. ... Hopefully we learned a lesson there getting ourselves ready to go right from the start.”

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