PHILADELPHIA — Indiana was in for a fight when it took the court against North Carolina, but an incredible stretch of shooting made it largely one-sided in favor of the Tar Heels.

UNC (31-6) defeated IU (27-8) by 15, 101-86, in the Sweet 16 match-up between two traditional powers Friday night.

Yogi Ferrell played well in his final contest as a Hoosier, scoring 25 points and recording four assists. However, he was out-shined by the North Carolina duo of Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson.

Paige was deadly from behind the arc, hitting four threes in the game’s first five minutes and six total to finish with 21 points. UNC’s senior leader was also a key facilitator, notching six assists. Overall North Carolina proved to be a very unselfish team on offense, assisting on 20 of its 32 made baskets.

Johnson, who entered the game averaging a double-double, had another. He scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

North Carolina’s ability to finish resulted in a 51.6 percent shooting mark for the game, which was no doubt boosted by a 62.1 field goal percentage in the first half. While that’s impressive in itself, what astounded many was the Tar Heels making 55 percent of their threes. Entering the game UNC averaged a measly 31.4 three-point field goal percentage.

IU assisted on 13 of its 25 made baskets, but shot just 41 percent from the field. Part of that came from UNC’s ability to shut down driving lanes, but a larger part came for Indiana’s inability to hit open shots that had fallen in recent games.

This was especially true from deep, where the No. 5 seed Hoosiers managed to his just 13 of 31 attempts. As IU starved for baskets at times, head coach Tom Crean saw the lapses as detrimental to his team’s confidence.

“You can’t have the success our team’s had on both ends of the court without having that level of confidence that those shots are going to go,” Crean said, “and they just didn’t enough.”

This was especially true in the first half, and perhaps evidenced best by Troy Williams’ performance. Williams didn’t hit a shot in the first half and had just one point, but went on a tear in the second and scored 20 behind five made threes.

But, it was too late to make a difference.

“We had another slow start,” Williams said. “This whole tournament we’ve been starting off slow and it came back to hurt us. We had games throughout the season where we would start off slow but we’ll find a way to get back … They just kept the lead and sustained the lead and also pushed the lead even more.”

Although Indiana went toe-to-toe with UNC in the paint for most of the game, eventually Justin Jackson, Johnson and others wore Thomas Bryant and company down. The Tar Heels finished with a 37 to 32 rebounding advantage, which included 15 offensive boards for both teams.

At times North Carolina would pull down two or three offensive boards in one possession. UNC finished with 16 second chance points.

It was here that Crean feels the game was lost.

“The threes hurt us, no question about that,” Crean said, “but the post-ups, they destroyed us. We couldn’t overcome that.”

Indiana did perform well from the charity stripe, hitting 23 of 26 attempts. However, foul trouble for both teams meant UNC got its fair share of free-throw attempts as well. The Tar Heels made 26 of 33.

North Carolina also capitalized of IU’s 12 turnovers for 21 points. The Hoosiers, in comparison, scored just 12 off nine Tar Heel miscues.

The Tar Heels will face Notre Dame Sunday night for a spot in the Final Four. The pair of ACC teams split in two meetings thus far this season with the Irish winning in South Bend and the Tar Heels posting a dominating win in the conference tournament.