By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
ATLANTA (AP) – Chris Bosh scored 22 points and Georgia Tech turned a close game into a rout with a 17-1 run, beating North Carolina 88-68 Wednesday night.
Georgia Tech (10-7, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) improved to 9-0 at home, while North Carolina (11-8, 2-4) has lost three in a row and eight of 14 since beginning the season with five straight victories.
In perhaps their most complete performance of the season, the Yellow Jackets shot 49 percent from the field and outrebounded the Tar Heels 43-31.
Bosh hit 9-of-14 shots to rebound from his worst performance of the season – a foul-plagued, five-point effort against Duke on Saturday.
B.J. Elder scored 19 points, Marvis Lewis 18 and Jarrett Jack 13. Ed Nelson grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds, including a key one at the offensive end that sparked the decisive run.
Jawad Williams led North Carolina with 24 points, but all but two came in the first half. The Tar Heels shot just 39 percent and had only two other players in double figures as they suffered their fourth double-figure loss of the season.
North Carolina trailed 51-38 at halftime despite 22 points by Williams, who set a career high with 20 minutes still to go.
Williams went cold in the second half – he didn’t score again until two meaningless free throws in the waning minutes – but the Tar Heels still got within 66-60 on Jackie Manuel’s basket with 10 minutes remaining.
From that point, it was all Georgia Tech. The spark, as it turned out, was a seemingly innocuous offensive rebound by Nelson.
He gathered up a miss by Jarrett Jack and kicked the ball out to Lewis, who swished an open 3-pointer to push the Yellow Jackets to a 69-60 lead.
Georgia Tech reeled off eight more points before North Carolina finally scored again. Byron Sanders made a free throw with 5:47 left, but that merely cut the deficit to 77-61. The Yellow scored the next six points to complete the run.
The Yellow Jackets pulled away from North Carolina late in the first half, as well.
The Tar Heels were down 39-35 after two free throws by Damion Grant with 3:10 left. Georgia Tech closed the half with a 12-3 spurt, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers by Elder and Jack.
