Georgia State had just scored 25 straight points and took its first lead on North Carolina in the third quarter on a 29-yard pass. The Tar Heels defense, fractured and bruised, began bickering on their way to the sideline.

The defensive line and secondary were having their own conversations and the level of frustration was rising as a feeling of deja vu was starting to take over. UNC allowed Appalachian State to score 40 points in the fourth quarter last week and it could feel a breakdown was happening again.

Until sophomore linebacker Power Echols stepped in.

“I seen it all going down and immediately, God put it in my head, ‘I gotta get it together,’” Echols said. “So he gave me the words and I bought them [the defense] together and told them like, ‘Hey, it’s not about them. It’s about us.’”

From that moment on, Carolina shut the Panthers out in the fourth quarter and held them to just 58 total yards before pulling away with a 35-28 victory at Center Parc Stadium.

It was a much-needed defensive performance after the Heels’ fourth quarter debacle last week.

The defense proved as much by preventing the Heels’ three second half turnovers from becoming a bigger problem. The Panthers converted an interception into a field goal, but that was the only scoring drive after a takeaway.

They even held when running back D.J. Jones fumbled at the end of a 21-yard run to set the Panthers up at the UNC 45 with 5:29 left in the game.

GSU began its drive with a false start penalty and could not recover as Carolina’s defense forced a punt after three plays.

Even when the Heels seemed to be falling apart — and there were plenty of those moments, like when DeAndre Boykins picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for shoving GSU’s Kris Byrd after a play was dead.

The Panthers scored on their opening drive of the second half when receiver Robert Lewis got a step behind cornerback Tony Grimes, and safety Cam Kelly overplayed the throw to his right. Lewis caught the pass from Darren Grainger and outraced Kelly for a 49-yard score.

UNC quarterback Drake Maye then threw his first interception — coming on his 90th pass attempt this season and the 100th of his career. Maye had receiver Kobe Paysour in single coverage, but underthrew him on the Heels’ first snap of the second half. GSU capitalized by marching for a field goal and pulling within one, 21-20.

“Defensively, we’re starting to show the progress that I thought we’d have at the first year,” Brown said. “And I think a new staff, a few new players playing a lot of young ones mixed in there, this defense will keep getting better.”

There were still too many big plays allowed. GSU totaled five plays of 20 yards or more. But unlike last week, Carolina seemed to come up big whenever it was put in a bad situation.

With 1:31 left in the first half, Brown went for a fourth-and-2 at UNC’s own 39. Maye was dropped for a nine-yard loss when Jontrey Hunter wasn’t fooled by the misdirection play.

Carolina’s defense didn’t fold despite the short field. Kaimon Rucker tackled quarterback Darren Grainger for a loss on a third down from the 26. Then Myles Murphy blocked a 44-yard field goal attempt by getting a hand up as the ball crossed the interior of the line.

“If we can take a crisis and turn it into something positive,” Rucker said, “that’s when you will make your best defense.”

Carolina didn’t have its best offensive performance and still rolled up 467 total yards.

The Heels running game proved particularly effective in the second half, when they ran up 134 yards.

Omarion Hampton led the way with his second 100-plus yard performance of the season. Hampton finished with 110 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including a 58-yard scoring run that tied the game at 28.

“We had a split zone, inside zone and Mario hit the gap in a pretty big crease and took it all the way,” Maye said. “It was one of the bigger moments in the game. We kind of flipped the script.”