Chapel Hill, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Setting their sights on a third straight victory, the 15th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels welcome the Virginia Tech Hokies to the Dean E. Smith Center on Sunday evening, for an ACC matchup. Roy Williams Tar Heels are 13-4 on the season, have won two straight and seven of their last eight games, with the lone loss during that stretch being a one-point setback to Notre Dame (71-70). Most recently, the team has recorded a pair of narrow victories over Louisville (72-71) and NC State (81-79) to move to 3-1 in league play. Buzz Williams first season in Blacksburg has been an up-and-down ride thus far, reflected in the teams 8-8 overall record. Unfortunately, it has been all downhill in ACC play thus far, as the team is still seeking its first win of the 2015 calendar year. The Hokies bring a four-game losing streak into this contest and an 0-3 mark in conference play. The skid continued last Tuesday with a 78-63 loss at Louisville. UNC has dominated this series and currently holds a 64-13 edge all-time. That includes an 11-3 mark since Virginia Tech joined the ACC prior to the 2004-05 campaign. The Tar Heels have captured nine of the last 10 meetings overall. This contest will conclude a three-game road trip for Virginia Tech. The first two legs of the set failed to produce positive results, including the lopsided loss at Louisville on Tuesday. The Cardinals jumped all over the Hokies, opening with a 17-2 run and never looking back. Adam Smith led three Hokies in double figures in the setback, finishing with 19 points. Justin Bibbs tacked on 15 points, while Ahmed Hill chipped in with 14 for Virginia Tech, which shot just .367 from the floor overall. Virginia Tech is far from an offensive juggernaut at a modest 69.0 ppg. However, the scoring comes on an efficient .470 shooting that includes a stellar .405 from behind the arc. Bibbs and Smith are a solid one-two punch at the offensive end. Bibbs is shooting just over 50 percent from the field and tops the team at 13.6 ppg. Smith isnt far behind with his 13.1 ppg. The pair have been lethal from long range, both shooting over 45 percent from 3-point range and combining for 68 of the teams 109 3-pointers to date. The Tar Heels shot the ball at an impressive .556 clip at NC State last week and needed every bit of it, as UNC was able to edge out the Wolfpack on the road by two points. Star guard Marcus Paige was unstoppable in the win, finishing with game-highs of 23 points and nine assists. While Paige just missed a double-double, big man Kennedy Meeks was able to complete the feat, posting 15 points and 10 rebounds. Isaiah Hicks came off the bench with 12 points and Brice Johnson tacked on 10 for North Carolina. Strong offensive performances are nothing new for North Carolina this season. The team enters this contest averaging 79.6 ppg, ranking third in the conference. The Tar Heels couple that with strong defensive numbers, allowing just 65.6 ppg and ranking third in the conference in field-goal percentage defense (.369). Paige paces the team in scoring at 13.9 ppg. Meeks is a perfect complement with his dominance in the paint. The 6-foot-9 sophomore is converting 58.1 percent of his shots and is averaging 12.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Johnson rounds out the teams top offensive threats with 11.2 ppg. Cheap Jerseys 2020 . The hard-serving 22-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., became the first Canadian to be ranked in the Top 10 on the ATP World Tour thanks to his runner-up performance at Rogers Cup in Montreal. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . According to a police report, Douglas is accused of grabbing his girlfriend by the neck and slamming her against the wall several times while he carried her from the elevator to their Hartford hotel room early Sunday morning. https://www.nfljerseys2020.com/. Louis Blues just continue to roll -- especially against the Nashville Predators. NFL Jerseys 2020 .com) - Rajon Rondo turned in a game-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists as Dallas claimed a 102-98 win over the Lakers on Friday. Discount NFL Jerseys 2020 . The 18-year-old centre was the Senators first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The six-foot 196-pound native of Salmon Arm, B.Canadas largest sports company wants the Maple Leafs to become Chinas favourite hockey team, in much the same way Manchester United is the most popular soccer team in the worlds most populous country. At the same time as Chinese government officials have asked the NHL to stage a regular-season game in China as early as next season, TSN has learned four executives with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment are scheduled to leave Friday for Beijing for meetings to help grow hockey in China, an untapped frontier for many sports leagues around the world. MLSE chief commercial officer Dave Hopkinson, Bo Hu, MLSEs executive in charge of Chinese business, and two colleagues will attend meetings in Beijing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his staff, and Chinese government officials. Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan was scheduled to participate but canceled at the last minute, a team spokesperson said. (The NHL and NHLPA announced forward Carter Ashton was suspended for 20 games on Thursday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Ashton said he borrowed another athletes asthma inhaler.) MLSE executives, the 27-year-old Hu in particular, have quietly laid the groundwork for building the companys profile in China over the past three years. Because basketball is so popular in China, MLSE staff first established relationships with companies interested in sponsorship agreements with the Raptors. The basketball team now has sponsorships with Chinese auto tire maker Aeolus Tires and Asus, a laptop maker. MLSE has also partnered with I.T. company Huawei on music-industry projects. Its believed that MLSE garners more than $300,000 from each of those sponsorships. Company officials declined to say how much sponsorship revenue they make from China-based companies. As MLSEs relationships in China matured, the company landed meetings with the Chinese government - meetings where MLSE received an attractive offer. China is competing with Kazakhstan to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. China wants to have hockey teams that are competitive. But with a mens national team thats ranked No. 38 — behind New Zealand, Belgium and Iceland — China needs help getting to that point. China wasnt a sports nation before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but it is now, Hopkinson said in an interview. The president of the country attended the Team Canada mens hockey games in Sochi and said he fell in love with hockey. Whats important to the president of China is important to China. Chinese officials said in exchange for helping to develop grass-roots hockey programs in China, the government would help MLSE promote the Maple Leafs brand there. This is the most storied and established brand in the game, Hopkinson said. We were told that if they were going to partner in the NFL, it would be with the Dallas Cowboys. If they were doing a baseball deal, it would be with the New York Yankees. And if theres a partnership in the NHL, its going to be with the Maple Leafs. It doesnt hurt that the Leafs are based in Canada. Tensions might appear if a U.S.-based team tried to do what the Leafs hope to do. The Chinese have told us they really appreciate what we are doing, boots on the ground, helping them to develop a hockey competency, said Hopkinson, who has made four previous trips to China. In March, the Leafs converted all of their rink boards to Chinese to welcome Chinese viewers. In August, the team sent staff to Beijing and Shanghai to stage hockey camps for young amateur players. In coming weekks, the Leafs will aid in the production of a 10-part Hockey 101 series to be included in NHL broadcasts on CCTV in China to educate viewers.dddddddddddd We arent the only team in China, Hu said. The Canucks and Islanders are there, too, but we really have a plan to become the biggest hockey brand there. We want to keep holding camps for kids, building grass roots interest, and eventually take our Maple Leafs players there. This is the Manchester United model. The worlds most famous soccer club says it has 108 million fans in China, where it has played almost a dozen times since 1975. Hu said because the NHL prevents teams from promoting themselves outside their local territories, MLSE has been targeting Chinese companies such as Air China and the Bank of China that want to expand their business in Canada. There are a lot of Chinese mining companies that have investments in Canada, although we just signed an agreement with a Colombian mining company, Hu said. Hu confirmed Chinese officials have told the NHL they are interested in hosting an NHL game as soon as next season. As any seasoned marketer knows, the payoff for a team to break through in China is huge. In its recent filing for an initial public offering, Alibaba reported just 45.8 per cent of Chinas population uses the Internet, far lower than Canada or the U.S. In 2000, four per cent of urban households in China were considered middle class; by 2012, more than two-thirds of those homes had gained that status, earning between $9,000 and $16,000. In 2022, Chinas middle class may eclipse 630 million consumers. There already are signs that China, a non-traditional hockey market to be sure, is open to a new sport. Last year, the state broadcaster CCTV began showing four live NHL games every week. This is CCTVs second year of a three-year deal with the NHL. NHL games broadcast on the weekend in China have attracted an average 800,000 households - airing at 7 a.m. local time. By comparison, televised Leafs games in Canada with national distribution this season have attracted about 1.5 million viewers. This year, Beijings 150 registered teams have 2,300 players between the ages of six and 15, MLSE says. Still, there are challenges to growing hockey in China. For starters, its an expensive sport, Hu said, thanks to 30 per cent import duties for hockey equipment shipped from the west and expensive ice time. There are politics to consider. In 2005, the newspaper Beijing Today accused western soccer teams of gold-digging, using their tours of China solely to build their brand and commercial presence. Some efforts simply dont translate. Manchester United closed a pair of theme restaurants after fans didnt see a connection between soccer fandom and eating out, The New York Times reported in 2007. Also, its unclear whether the NHL sees a big upside in China. The league does not have a senior vice president in change of expanding its international business, a position common in other pro sports leagues. Moreover, the NBA has a long head start in China, where it began to lay a toehold during the 1990s. Now, the NBA attracts some five million viewers a game in China. In the U.S., NBA broadcasts on cable TV get about two million viewers per game. Its doubtful that the NHL would ever grow business through the sale of team jerseys. While authentic jerseys now sell for $330 in Canada, counterfeiting has flourished in China, bringing down the price of knock-off jerseys to $5 or $10 in some cases. ' ' '