Tar Heels hang on against Irish

North Carolina blew a big lead Monday, but still had enough to extend a long winning streak. James Michael McAdoo’s bucket with just over three minutes to play gave the No. 14 Tar Heels the lead back for good in their 12th straight victory, 63-61 over Notre Dame.

The host Tar Heels led by as much as 15 points, but saw Notre Dame (15-16, 6-12 Atlantic Coast Conference) go up twice in the second half, including at 56-54 on Steve Vasturia’s lay up with four minutes remaining in the game.

McAdoo (team-high 14 points) hit a free throw to make it a one-point game, then Marcus Paige assisted on his jumper that put the Tar Heels (23-7, 13-4) up 57-56. It was a 61-56 game before the Fighting Irish got a three-point play from Pat Connaughton, and later, Eric Atkins’ lay up made it 62-61.

Atkins, who scored a game-high 21 points, missed a potential tying jumper with two seconds to play.

A look at some other mens basketball games from Monday…

N.C. State 74, Pittsburgh 67

T.J. Warren scored a career-best 41 points to lead the Wolfpack to a road win.

Warren, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s leading scorer who has eight career 30-point games, reached 40 for the first time, thanks to a 16 of 22 shooting night. N.C. State (18-12, 8-9) needed his sparkling performance as the rest of the team made only 10 of 33 field goal attempts.

Josh Newkirk also reached a career-high as the freshman’s 20 points led Pittsburgh (22-8, 10-7).

Oklahoma State 77, Kansas State 61

The host Cowboys played excellent defense in winning their fourth consecutive game.

Oklahoma State (20-10, 8-9 Big 12) held Kansas State (20-10, 10-7) to just 34 percent shooting, including a 3 of 15 performance from three-point range. Meanwhile, Phil Forte led a quartet of double-figure scorers with 23 points.

Thomas Gipson and Wesley Iwundu scored 10 points each to pace the visiting Wildcats, who fell to 2-7 in conference road games.

Seton Hall 71 Xavier 62

Brian Oliver, Fuquan Edwin and Gene Teague combined for 54 points on 19 of 31 shooting in the Pirates’ home victory.

Oliver led the way with 20 points, including hitting 5 of his 10 three-point attempts in helping Seton Hall (15-15, 6-11 Big East) snap a three-game losing streak and sweep the season series.

Xavier (20-10, 10-7), which fell to 3-6 on the road in the Big East, was led by Semaj Christon’s game-high 28 points.

Colgate 57, Navy 51

Damon Sherman-Newsome scored 16 points off the bench to lead the seventh-seeded Raiders to a victory in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. Luke Roh and Ethan Jacobs added 20 points each for Colgate (13-16), which will play No. 2 seed American in today’s quarterfinals.

Colgate won its fourth consecutive game, but snapped a four-game losing streak in the league tournament. The Raiders won for the first time since also beating Navy in overtime in the opening round of the 2009 tournament.

Brandon Venturini scored a game-high 26 points for the 10th-seeded Midshipmen, who finished 9-21.

Lafayette 84, Loyola (MD) 71

The No. 9 seed Leopards made 63 percent of their shots in advancing in the Patriot League Tournament.

Lafayette (11-19), which reached the tournament final a year ago, had four in double figures, led by Seth Hinrichs (22 points, 7 of 11 shooting) and Joey Ptasinski (18 points, 5 of 11).

Jarred Jones came into the game averaging just under eight points, but exploded for a career-high 28 points to lead eighth-seeded Loyola (11-19).

Lafayette will play top-seed Boston in today’s quarterfinals.