With a little more than a minute left in the first half, Marcus Paige, North Carolina’s senior guard, threw a laser of a pass on a fast break to Brice Johnson, who slammed the ball in. The crowd, which had turned Brooklyn’s Barclays Center into a kind of Chapel Hill North for the No. 11 Tar Heels’ game Saturday against No. 22 U.C.L.A., roared, and Johnson, pausing for a moment under the basket, joined them with a full-throated yell.
The basket gave the Tar Heels their first lead since they had been up, 3-2. They never trailed again.