The North Carolina freshmen performed as well as head coach Matt Doherty could have hoped in their first game.

Tar Heel freshmen 58, Penn State 55.

North Carolina went on a 16-0 run early in the first half extending the Tar Heels' lead to 24-6 over the Penn State men's basketball team, en route to a 85-55 victory, last night at the Dean E. Smith Center as part of the Pre-Season NIT.

Freshman Rashad McCants led the Tar Heels with 28 points, which broke the freshman opening-game scoring record that was held previously by Joe Forte, who scored 24 points against Southern California to start the 1999-2000 season.

With a little over seven minutes left in the first half, McCants had scored 17 points and the entire Nittany Lions' squad had 17. McCants, who wears No. 32 because it is the reverse number of Michael Jordan, added seven rebounds and shot 11-for-14 from the field.

McCants received help from his fellow freshmen as Sean May dominated in the low post, scoring 17 points. Raymond Felton added nine and David Noel chipped in with four.

May recorded his first double-double as he pulled down 10 rebounds. Felton fell one point shy of a double-double as he registered 10 assists.

"[May's] going to be a great ACC player and one of Carolina's greats," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said.

"He is someone that we'll see at the next level."

In the second half, the Lions showed some resilience as an 18-3 run cut the North Carolina lead to 18 at 71-53. Lions forward Jan Jagla was ahead of the pack looking to cut the lead to 16, but Felton stepped in front of the pass and the Tar Heels went to the other end of the floor. McCants laid the ball in the basket to end the Penn State threat. North Carolina closed the game out on a 14-2 run, including the McCants basket.

The lone bright spot on the evening for the Lions was senior guard Brandon Watkins. Watkins scored a career-high 24 points on 11-for-22 from the field, had two rebounds and two assists.

Jamaal Tate and Sharif Chamliss, who played brilliantly in the exhibition games, both struggled to find their stroke from the field. Tate made his first shot, a three-pointer, but then missed his final eight field goals. Chambliss scored 12 points but missed nine shots from behind the arc and finished the game 3-for-14.

It was not only Tate and Chambliss who struggled from the field as the Lions shot 30 percent for the game and made only 3-of-22 from three-point range. In the first half there was stretch when Penn State had misfired on 25 of its 33 shot attempts.

As cold as the Lions were shooting the basketball, North Carolina was the exact opposite. The Tar Heels shot nearly 60 percent in the first half, and finished the game at 53 percent.

"I have played against a lot of teams and they were as athletic, or more, than anybody we ever played against in my twenty years at Penn State," Dunn said.

"I don't think we were able to guard at any one position ... They exploited us."