TALLAHASSEE -- During a ceremony before Wednesday's game against North Carolina, Florida State point guard Delvon Arrington was honored for being the school's all-time assist leader.

Two hours later, the senior did not hesitate to make one more pass as he tossed the basketball 40 feet into the middle of a home crowd to celebrate an 81-71 victory over North Carolina.

"It meant a lot to me," Arrington said about winning in front of former FSU assist record-holder Otto Petty, who participated in the ceremony. "For some reason, I was nervous this game, and I'm never nervous."

It did not show.

Arrington scored a season-high 17 points and added eight assists to increase his total to 615. With 58 seconds left in the game, he made a free throw to become the first Seminole with 1,000 points and 600 assists. Only four other ACC players have done that. With leading scorer and rebounder Jason Capel sitting out because of a concussion sustained in practice Tuesday, North Carolina struggled offensively. It missed six of its first seven shots and trailed 16-5 6:15 into the game.

"Jason wasn't here, but there is no asterisk next to this loss or (FSU coach Steve Robinson's) win," North Carolina coach Matt Doherty said.

"We've been in games against good teams that didn't have their team and won. We miss Jason, but we didn't lose the game because of Jason."

The Seminoles, playing the first half with the energy shown during their 77-76 victory over top-ranked Duke on Jan.6, repeatedly attacked the Tar Heels zone defense to create open shots and fastbreak opportunities.

With 8:52 left in the first half, Arrington whipped a pass to Trevor Harvey, whose dunk gave FSU a 28-10 lead.

But UNC, relying on the play of center Kris Lang, went on a 21-12 run to cut the deficit to 40-31 at halftime.

Lang, whose quickness was too much for FSU's 6-foot-10, 341-pound Nigel Dixon, had a three-point play with 16:08 left in the game to cut it to 45-43.

Point guard Adam Boone soon after hit a 3-pointer to give UNC its first lead at 50-49.

"(The Tar Heels) got down and came right back in the game, made plays and took the lead," Robinson said. "We were able to be tough enough at the end to win."

FSU, led by Monte Cummings, rebounded by outscoring UNC 31-22 the rest of the way to secure the win. Cummings, who was born and raised in Chapel Hill, finished 8-of-12 for a team-high 20 points. Antwuan Dixon added 13. Lang finished 9-of-16 from the field for a game-high 23 points.

The Seminoles (9-6, 2-2) have won five of their past six and beat Duke and North Carolina at home for the first time in the same season.

McPHERSON QUITS: Freshman Adrian McPherson, who has seen little playing time at point guard this season, quit to devote more time to football. The former Florida Mr. Basketball enters the spring as the second-string quarterback.

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