CHAPEL HILL  _ At least, as the final seconds ticked down, North Carolina students remembered to raise that hoariest of dismissive chants, “Start your tractors! Start your tractors!"

Otherwise there was little evidence the meeting at the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon between UNC and N.C. State was a rivalry game, or at least a rivalry game that meant much to the Tar Heel faithful. When the Wolfpack was introduced, only a few boos rippled through the Dean Dome, as if fans expected what proved a 93-62 rout.

Recent experience lent weight to the impression this was not a battle of equals. The Heels had won 12 of their previous 15 games against the Pack at Chapel Hill, and eight of the last nine overall.

What’s more, UNC entered the game undefeated in 16 starts, scoring 92.1 points per outing, fourth-best in ACC history. Compare that to an N.C. State squad still obviously struggling to find itself; in two of its preceding three games, the Pack trailed at halftime at Raleigh against modestly threatening Western Carolina and Presbyterian.

The sense of neighborly animosity that fuels most rivalries was further undercut by the virtual absence of North Carolinians on either roster. “I don’t know much about it, honestly,” UNC’s Deon Thompson, a Californian, said of the rivalry. Teammate William Graves, who was ill and did not play, is the only recruited native son on either squad.

The state of North Carolina, in fact, has not produced a front-rank prospect since Lewisville’s Chris Paul, a freshman at Wake Forest in 2003-04. “The talent has fallen off,” said Brick Oettinger, the veteran recruiting analyst for Prep Stars. “We used to produce superstars, one after another after another. Where have they been?”

So Thompson said the Heels understood the rivalry’s enduring import not from personal experience, but from the attitude of Roy Williams, an Asheville native. “Him personally, he’s not too big on State,” the sophomore said.

Imagine Williams’ pleasure, then, as the Tar Heels quashed any sense of drama by breaking from a 9-9 tie to run off 32 of the next 34 points, including 25 in a row over a nine-minute span. They held N.C. State to 17.6 percent shooting, dominating the boards and the lane, en route to building a preposterous 43-13 halftime edge.

“If we play defense like we did in the first half…” Williams began. “When we play defense and when we’re really swarming, doing what we’re supposed to do, listening to the scouting report and use those clues that we give them, then I think we are pretty doggone good.”

The clues any opponent can use against N.C. State have become glaringly obvious.

The Wolfpack has yet to find a steadying leader on the floor, not to mention a playmaker who can shape and force action. Nor does Sidney Lowe’s team possess an outside scoring threat to complement a formidable inside attack spearheaded by freshman J.J. Hickson. The leading candidate for ACC rookie of the year had 14 points and 8 rebounds against UNC.

These failings are manifest in the ACC statistics – N.C. State entered the game last in the league in turnover margin, offensive rebounds, 3-pointers made, and steals, and ranked next-to-last in assists and rebound margin and 3-point accuracy.

The Wolfpack’s lack of reliable perimeter shooting allowed UNC to collapse inside any time a big man had the ball in scoring position; in the decisive first half, the Heels blocked eights shots, forced nine turnovers, and held the visitors to 3-of-21 shooting in the paint.

UNC used its defense to fuel its offense, as the best teams do, scoring repeatedly on fast breaks.

“They did a good job defensively, I’m not going to take anything away from them,” said N.C. State junior Courtney Fells, his team’s leading scorer with 16 points. “They had at least three guys on one player one time. We’ve just got to do a better job of reading that and kicking the ball out, trying to depend on our wings to make the play.”

Of course it bears repeating that it is early in the season, with two months until the ACC Tournament. This was the conference opener for N.C. State, the second ACC game for North Carolina. Both teams have winning records but are works-in-progress, although at very different points in the continuum of development.

North Carolina, already the nation’s top-ranked unit, gave a glimpse of its potential during that crushing first half, leaving reporters wondering aloud if the Heels could go undefeated in the ACC, a feat last accomplished by Duke in 1999.

“A 25-0 run speaks volumes about this team when we’re really focused and playing as a team,” said junior Marcus Ginyard. Added sometimes-shaky senior Quentin Thomas, who contributed four assists, four points, three rebounds and no turnovers, “This team has so much talent and so much potential, I think we still haven’t peaked the way we can.”

Sidney Lowe, meanwhile, exercises patience with his Wolfpack, as he demonstrated at halftime. In circumstances even remotely similar, Williams would have been “ripping up apart,” according to UNC’s Danny Green. Instead, Lowe was “very, very positive,” Fells said. The teams essentially played to a draw in the second half.

“Today was definitely a bad day. But, I’ve said this from the very beginning, this is still a young team. It is. It’s a young team, it’s a new team,” Lowe said. “Eventually we’ll get there. I don’t know when, but we’ll get there.”

A good time to reach that eventuality is 40 days and 11 games from now, when North Carolina comes to the RBC Center, where the Wolfpack won the teams’ initial meeting last season.