If North Carolina had any thoughts of letting up after two consecutive blowouts to start the NCAA tournaments, Coach Roy Williams quickly squashed those notions prior his team’s 68-47 thrashing of Washington State on Thursday.

“I put up on the board, ‘tough enough, patient enough, poised enough,’” Williams said, “and talked about guarding for 35 seconds.”

The top-seeded Tar Heels (35-2) play third-seeded Louisville (27-8) tonight at 9:05 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The Cardinals had no trouble with second-seeded Tennessee, beating the Volunteers, 79-60, on Thursday night behind a strong defensive performance and 17 points from forward Earl Clark off the bench.

“Coach has talked about denial, pressure, trying to force steals and turnovers,” guard Andre McGee said. “We stepped it up in the second half and made them throw the ball out of bounds a couple times.”

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Both the Tar Heels and Cardinals are red-hot entering tonight’s game. North Carolina’s 21-point win over the Cougars was its closest game of the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels, who lost in the Elite Eight to Georgetown last season, won their first three tournament games by an average of more than 30 points, and are on a 14-game winning streak. Louisville has won its three NCAA Tournament games by an average of 22.3 points.

“The last three games our offense and defense have been all clicking,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who took the Cardinals to the Final Four in 2005, said. “There have been other games where our offense has clicked and our defense has clicked.”

After scoring more than 100 points in each of the first two games, North Carolina also won with defense on Thursday, holding Washington State to just 47 points.

“I’d rather win in the 80, 90, and 100s, but sometimes you have to win in the 50s and 60s,” Williams, who led the Tar Heels to the national championship in 2005, said. “And you have to be tough enough to understand that, and you have to be tough enough to make the shots and tough enough to guard for 35 seconds.”

The Cardinals have four players who average 10 or more points per game, led by center David Padgett’s 11.6. The Tar Heels are led by junior forward and National Player of the Year candidate Tyler Hansbrough’s 22.6 points and 10.2 rebounds a game.

North Carolina also got a boost off the bench from forward Danny Green, who struggled in the first two games of the tournament before scoring 15 points on Thursday.

“I think just making one basket really, kind of gets me going,” Green said. “And once I got going things started working toward my way.”

avitelli@baltimoreexaminer.com

Associated Press contributed to this report.