No. 7 North Carolina, No. 17 UCLA in Vegas consolation game

With No. 7 North Carolina and No. 17 UCLA meeting on the final day of a tournament, the stakes would seem to be high.

Yet this will be Friday's consolation game of the Las Vegas Invitational.

The teams try to avoid a two-game skid when they play at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

There should be plenty of things to fix for both teams.

To be sure, North Carolina (5-1) and UCLA (4-1) are coming off drastically different kinds of losses.

North Carolina was nipped 92-80 by Texas, while UCLA suffered an 87-67 rout to No. 11 Michigan State in the second semifinal Thursday night.

"This is an inexperienced team, we've talked about it," UCLA coach Steve Alford said. "There's so much inexperience."

For North Carolina, which starts three seniors, there was a glaring shortage of points in transition against Texas, something that's expected to be a staple for the Tar Heels.

"North Carolina gets two points on the fast break," coach Roy Williams said of his team. "We can't play like that."

North Carolina's setback was more surprising because of the four semifinalists only Texas is unranked.

But this was the first time in six games that the Tar Heels (5-1) had been in a tight game down the stretch, though they did have a few anxious second-half moments in the opener at Wofford.

But this was different because Texas was scoring at a torrid clip. North Carolina cleaned up some of its turnovers problems by the second half, so that was encouraging but there were other concerns to address before the UCLA game.

"The thing is when you're trying to come back you have to get good shots," Williams said. "We took bad shots."

The defensive problems continued to exist in the second half for North Carolina, with Texas hitting on 62.5 percent of its shots from the field.

"You can't let somebody shoot 63 percent in the second half," Williams said.

Perhaps the Tar Heels will come out with a stronger effort against UCLA. Williams said he didn't like the mindset in the first half, but he thought there were better signs in the second half Thursday night.

Still, it needs to be a game-long approach.

"We didn't play tough," North Carolina guard Coby White said after he was part of a collegiate loss for the first time.

White pumped in 33 points, making 7 of 10 attempts from 3-point range. It's the third-highest single-game scoring total for a North Carolina freshman in program history. He provided his production in 30 minutes of action.

UCLA has a capable freshman as well with 7-foot-1 center Moses Brown, who became the first Bruin with double-doubles in the first three games of a career.

Brown, who had a game-high three blocked shots, was held to five points and 10 rebounds by Michigan State.

The Bruins limited their turnovers to nine as that had been an area of concern for Alford. But shooting 35.6 percent from the field won't be good enough many nights.

"We have to get some guys adjusted to things," Alford said of the level of competition.

The lopsided loss Thursday for UCLA, which trailed by 25 points at the half, came in the same event where the Bruins won twice in a 2013 appearance.

The Tar Heels are without point guard Seventh Woods, who'll also miss Friday's game. The junior reserve, who led the team with 5.4 assists per game in the first five games, suffered a concussion during Tuesday's practice.

UCLA is 9-4 under Alford in Las Vegas, which has been the site of recent Pac-12 Tournaments.

North Carolina leads the series with UCLA by 8-3. The teams last met in December 2015 with North Carolina winning in New York.