Boston College took the swagger out of No. 4 North Carolina before falling 76-66 in a Saturday matinee slugfest before a capacity crowd of 8,606 at Conte Forum.

The first-place Tar Heels, winners of eight straight, improved to 15-3 and 7-0 in the ACC. The Eagles fell to 11-7 overall, 2-4 in the ACC and begin a two-game road swing at Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.

BC was dominated statistically but was never out of the contest until the final minutes. BC shot 34.5% from the floor and a dismal 3-of-17 from behind the arc with 28 rebounds and nine assists. Power forward Quinten Post led with 19 points and 10 boards, but Eagles starting guards Jaeden Zackery and Claudell Harris were a combined 2-17 from the floor.

UNC shot 44.6% from the floor with 43 rebounds and 15 assists. Forwards Harrison Ingram and Amando Bacot combined for 21 points and 22 rebounds while guards Cormac Ryan and R.J Davis combined for 30 points.

“Our crowd, they are really starting to care about basketball and showing up more and supporting these players,” said BC coach Earl Grant. “We have to play a little better to win a game like that and I’m proud that we executed the plan and did what we wanted to do.”

Up by three at the half, UNC opened a nine-point lead when Bacot converted a three-point play with 18:42 remaining. BC outscored UNC 7-2 to cut the Tar Heels lead to 42-28 into the first media timeout.

The Heels opened a six-point lead and maintained it into the second media timeout. UNC was the beneficiary of a string of bad or missed calls by the ACC officiating crew during a tight stretch that brought down disapproval from the BC crowd. There were 46 fouls called, 26 against UNC and 20 against BC, with 45 points scored from the line.

“There were lot of foul calls but the whistle was going both ways,” said Post. “We can’t complain about that at all but it broke up the whole game and made it a weird game to play.”

Every time it appeared UNC was poised to go on an extended run, BC would make a stop or respond with a basket. UNC began a late surge when Ingram buried a corner trey and Bacot converted a 3-point play to give the Heels a 68-60 lead with 3:13. UNC took its first double digit lead, 74-64, on a floater in the paint by Seth Trimble with 1:27 to play.

“We wanted to keep the game at our pace and our tempo,” said Grant. “We didn’t want to let it get too fast and give them runs in transition and I thought we did a good job of keeping the game at the right pace.”

BC was not cowed by the heavily favored Tar Heels and went into the first media timeout ahead 9-5. Devin McGlockton finished two power moves to the rim and Post drained a 3-ball from the top of the post during the stretch.

BC maintained its defensive intensity and went up 16-10 on two free throws by Zackery with 12:18 to play. UNC’s Jae’Lyn Withers drained the Heel’s first 3-ball from the right corner to make it 16-13 at the second media timeout.

“We all play in the same league and I know they are good, they have been good forever,” said Grant. “In this league you don’t get caught up in who it is, it is just the next game on the schedule.”

The Tar Heels got in the last word in the final minute on a turnaround jumper by Harrison Ingram and a baseline alley-oop dunk by James Okonkwo with one second on the clock to take a 34-31 lead into the break.