FSU vs. UNC: Score and Reaction from 2017 Regular Season

The No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels handed the No. 9 Florida State Seminoles their second loss of the season Saturday, winning 96-83 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

UNC improved to 16-3 and was led by junior guard Joel Berry II, who paced all scorers with 26 points, including 17 in the first half.

Justin Jackson and Isaiah Hicks added 22 points each, which allowed North Carolina to reach an offensive feat it hadn't accomplished in six years, according to Bob Holliday of WRAL:

FSU received a great effort from Dwayne Bacon, who had a team-leading 18 points, but it wasn't enough to keep the 'Noles from dropping to 16-2.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, UNC head coach Roy Williams bolstered his impressive record against Top 10 teams with the win:

North Carolina came out of the gates firing with seven unanswered points, but the first half was a seesaw affair after Florida State bounced back.

The Seminoles found it difficult to get into an offensive rhythm in the early going, however, because of UNC's ability to prevent transition offense, according to Andrew Carter of the Charlotte Observer:

Sam Vecenie of Sporting News pointed out protecting the basketball was key for the Tar Heels in terms of avoiding those predicaments:

Even so, FSU battled back thanks to strong three-point shooting from Jonathan Isaac, Bacon and PJ Savoy.

The Seminoles tied the contest with 8:23 remaining in the half and started to get their fast-break offense going after that.

As Florida State's Twitter account shared, Bacon earned a three-point play the old-fashioned way and gave Florida State its first lead, 28-27:

The next several minutes of action went back and forth, but North Carolina started to pull away again within the final two minutes of the half.

After a Jackson dunk with 50 seconds remaining gave the Tar Heels a six-point advantage, Berry made it nine with a trifecta in the waning seconds.

Brendan Sonnone of 247Sports suggested a number of miscues were primarily responsible for FSU's deficit:

Although Florida State managed to cut UNC's lead to three points in the second half, the Tar Heels never relinquished the advantage they gained late in the opening frame.

With North Carolina leading 80-76 at the 5:47 mark, forward Theo Pinson elevated for a monster slam to push the lead back to six in just his third game of the season.

Per Lindsey Sparrow of Inside Carolina, Pinson, who suffered a foot injury in October, chose an effective way to make his first shot from the field in 2016-17:

Pinson ended the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, providing UNC with a spark it had been lacking for much of the campaign.

The Undefeated's Aaron Dodson noted Pinson's presence will be important moving forward:

Pinson's dunk caused the North Carolina faithful to come unglued, and Florida State appeared to have little fight left, as it was outscored 14-7 the rest of the way.

Florida State managed to outshoot North Carolina from the field, 46.3 percent to 42.5 percent, but the Tar Heels made 44.4 percent of their three-pointers and 70.3 percent of their free throws, while FSU connected on 32.1 percent and 46.2 percent, respectively.

While the final margin was large, the Seminoles looked like North Carolina's equal for much of the game.

Improving from the charity stripe and limiting turnovers should be the focus moving forward, and FSU must improve quickly on those fronts with games against No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 14 Louisville on the horizon.

North Carolina turned in a complete effort, with Pinson seeing his most action since returning, and it has a great chance to make some noise in the ACC.

The Tar Heels have five straight games against unranked opponents on tap, giving them a chance to seize sole possession of first place in the ACC by the end of that stretch.

Postgame Reaction

There was an exciting atmosphere surrounding Saturday's clash between UNC and FSU, and Williams acknowledged that following his team's victory:

Williams was complimentary of his team as a whole, but he seemed especially happy with the way Pinson performed after spending so much time on the shelf, according to GoHeels.com:

"

Well he does so many different things. He can drive the ball to the basket. He can rebound. He can defend. He can make plays on the drive. He made a couple of nice passes. We said that from the beginning that he really does some good things, and then today he got his three-point shot. I like that one as opposed to three-point shot at the end of the first half, which wasn’t a good shot.

"

Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton will be forced to go back to the drawing board after Saturday's loss, and something he figures to address is his team's aggressiveness—or lack thereof, per The David Glenn Show:

Hamilton also made mention of the fact that North Carolina seemingly had more pep in its step to start the game than the Seminoles did, per Andrew Miller of TomahawkNation.com:

Although Florida State rebounded from a rough start, it was forced into the position of having to battle from behind for nearly the entire game.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.