If this was supposed to be a highly contested big game that people would remember for a long time, one team failed to live up to its end of the bargain.

The Arizona men’s basketball (13-7, 6-3) failed to show up for a majority of the game Saturday afternoon and the North Carolina Tar Heels (12-5, 3-3) blew them out of Chapel Hill in front of a packed Dean Dome 86-69.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t put up a better fight,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson said.

North Carolina freshman forward Tyler Hansbrough was never flashy, but he sure was effective, ignoring the double teams of juniors Kirk Walters and Ivan Radenovic to put up 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Hansbrough dominated the paint, going over and through Arizona defenders despite being a few inches shorter than Arizona’s post players.

“It kind of seemed like Walters was a 7-footer out of there, and he was pretty tough but I think positioning on the floor [was the key] and I played real well,” Hansbrough said.

When Hansbrough decided to kick it out, the Tar Heels refused to miss, making 9 of 17 3-pointers. The Tar Heels shot a season-high 56.7 percent from the field while also dishing 23 assists, matching a season high.

“They’re a great shooting team and when you have to drop ... they did a good job of finding the open man,” Olson said.

With the score tied at 31 and 2:43 left in the first half, North Carolina went on an 8-0 run capped by a Bobby Frasor 27 footer at the buzzer. The Tar Heels would use that momentum in the second half to slowly build on their lead, taking the margin to as high as 20 with 9:31 left to play.

“That was a big shot for us, and then when we came out in the second half we just came out with that much more firepower and I think that definitely put us over the hump,” senior forward David Noel said.

Defensively, North Carolina put the clamps on senior guard Hassan Adam’s high fly act. Adams was forced into a 6-14 shooting effort, that included no dunks and a variety of fade-away jump shots.

“In high school, I was never known as a defensive player and Hassan Adams is probably the best guard we’ve faced this year, the most athletic guard,” Frasor said. “The best way to play a player like that is to not let him get the ball and I think that’s what I really concentrated on doing tonight and I did a good job.”

Adams, who is averaging 19.9 points had his lowest scoring output (12 points) since the first game of the season when he scored 10 against Kansas.

“He made a couple of jump shots, he’s their best player, but I’m sure it wasn’t the type of game he would have liked to be in,” Frasor said.

Arizona once again struggled to shoot the ball, especially in the first half, when they hit only 39.5 percent of their field goals and went one for seven from beyond the arc.

Tar Heel junior point guard Wes Miller, making his third career start, made four of his five 3-point attempts in route to 14 points. He also scored his first two point basket since Dec. 3, 2005, breaking a streak of 28 straight field goals from 3-point range.

The Wildcats strength and the Tar Heels biggest weakness both revolved around turnovers. Coming into the game Arizona was forcing 21.5 turnovers per game, and North Carolina was turning it over 17.8 times per game, but the Wildcats only forced 13 Tar Heel miscues.

The 16 point loss was the Wildcats worst loss of the season, with the previous coming at Oregon State by 10.

“There’s no question the team that played the hardest and the smartest ... won,” Olson said.

Notes: Olson did not let players speak to the media after the game, saying the team had to catch a flight and did not have the time to allow access to players. Olson has not allowed access before on the road, the last time, in a loss to Houston. Player quotes were released to the media following the team’s exit. Adams said the team must move on from this game. “Just like any other game, we need to put this behind us and look at some film,” he said. “We wanted a ‘W’ but we have to learn from it either way. We’ll bounce back from this.”