HARTFORD, Conn. - North Carolina figures its gritty win at Connecticut will really pay off in March.

Before a roaring, hostile crowd of 16,294, the No. 2 Tar Heels took over in the second half behind Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton en route to a 77-70 victory Sunday.

"I think you've got to have some success in front of people other than your mama, your daddy and your girlfriend. Being able to do it somewhere else is big," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

For the 19th-ranked Huskies, it was a lost opportunity. They were coming off a 74-66 win over No. 8 Syracuse, and coach Jim Calhoun was hoping for another impressive victory to boost UConn's NCAA tournament resume.

"You have opportunities that come along in life and you have an opportunity to play a great team like Carolina. It could have been incredibly significant for us," Calhoun said. "I don't believe in, well, you played pretty well. That's not good enough for me and it's not good enough for any of my kids."

The Tar Heels played their first game since Wednesday night's 71-70 loss at No. 7 Duke, a game that ended with North Carolina failing to get off a shot on its last possession.

"Needless to say we feel a heck of a lot better than we did Wednesday night," Williams said. "I talked a great deal about getting that bad taste out of my mouth. We did some nice things today."

Such as take over in the second half on both ends of the court.

McCants scored 11 of his 15 points after halftime, while Felton got 14 of his 16 points and seven of his 10 assists in the final 20 minutes.

The Tar Heels committed only four turnovers in the second half while forcing the Huskies into 13 of their 22.

"We gave in to great defense. We came apart," Calhoun said. "We weren't mentally tough enough to stay in our offense and the turnovers led to fast-break baskets."

And it was McCants, Felton and classmate Sean May, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds, who made the difference.

The performances by the junior stars enabled the Tar Heels (20-3) to leave the court at the Hartford Civic Center with smiles on their faces instead of the stunned looks they wore following the last-play breakdown at Duke.

"It's big, it just shows how much more mature we are as a team and it showed our poise," Felton said. "We just came off a loss. Everybody was still kind of upset about the situation, but we had to come out and play against a big-time team in a big-time place."

Marcus Williams added a career-high 18 points for the Huskies (15-6), who had won three straight and four of five.

"Their wings did a great job denying and they were able to get right into their offense," said Williams, who didn't practice much during the week because of strep throat. "Playing Felton the whole game and pushing the ball took a lot out of me. I'm tired."

Connecticut led 34-31 after a first half that was played at the pace the Huskies were looking for. The second half was more to the liking of the Tar Heels, who lead the nation in scoring at 91.2 points per game.

Felton hit a 3-pointer with 12:10 left to break the game's final tie and give North Carolina a 51-48 lead. That started a 16-6 run that was capped by McCants' only 3, making it 64-54 with 7:54 to go.

When Connecticut closed to 67-63 on a driving basket by Williams, McCants was the key to the Tar Heels' 8-0 run - although he had only two points during the spurt.

He came up with an offensive rebound on the missed front end of a 1-and-1 by Marvin Williams and fed it back to him for a basket. Then McCants made a pass to Williams on the wing and the freshman hit a jumper as the shot clock expired to make it 73-63 with 1:48 left.

McCants was also bothered by a bug.

"I've been sick for the last couple of days, so it was just tough for me to get out there and keep my composure and not get down on myself," he said. "But my teammates had confidence in me and kept me in the game and kept giving me good looks and I knocked them down."

Jawad Williams had 17 points for North Carolina, which leads the series 5-1.

Josh Boone had 16 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks for the Huskies, who played without leading scorer Rashad Anderson. The junior swingman is hospitalized as he recovers from an infection in his leg. He is averaging 13.8 points per game and leads the Huskies with 43 3-pointers.

"Obviously, we're going to miss our leading scorer, but that's no excuse," Boone said. "Maybe down the stretch their experience was a factor, but it was more the turnovers."

This is North Carolina's first 20-win season since 2000-01, and the 47th in 95 seasons for the Tar Heels.

At Corvallis, Ore., David Lucas scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and finished with 10 rebounds to lead Oregon State (14-9, 6-6 Pac-10).Brandon Roy scored 25 points for Washington (20-4, 10-3).