North Carolina 74, Virginia 58
When the Wahoos plugged one hole in the ship Saturday at North Carolina, another one opened up and gushed water.
In the end, the ship sank.
The Tar Heels (11-4, 3-1 ACC), led by an incredible 29-point, 21-rebound performance from Richmond native Armando Bacot, stopped Virginia’s seven-game winning streak in the series and active two-game winning streak this season with a victory in Chapel Hill.
Some guy named Tim Duncan was the last player to record at least 20 points and 20 rebounds against the ‘Hoos, on Feb. 22, 1997, when Wake Forest beat UVa 66-60 in Charlottesville.
Bacot grabbed nine offensive rebounds against Virginia (9-6, 3-2), which got some stops but then couldn’t control the glass as the Tar Heels won the rebounding battle, 36-28.
It was a pretty disappointing outing coming off encouraging road wins at Syracuse and Clemson. Tony Bennett said he didn’t think the practices leading up to the game were too sharp.
“You got to come into these games with an edge and [be] alert,” Bennett said. “I didn’t think we had that. I told the guys, ‘You’ve got to keep your head up.’ But I said, ‘You’ve got to open up your ears and your mind about what just happened.’ We did not have two great days of prep. I thought we were not as alert and as sharp as we needed to be, and when you play against a quality opponent like Carolina, when you have a breakdown, those teams find a way to expose it right away.”
When Bacot wasn’t dominating, the Tar Heels were bombing deep 3-pointers. Over the span of Virginia’s winning streak in the series, UNC often came up empty from beyond the arc. That wasn’t the case Saturday. North Carolina went 11 for 25 from deep, led by Oklahoma transfer Bradley Manek’s 5-for-9 performance, which contributed to his output of 19 points. Manek played against Virginia in the second round of the 2019 NCAA tournament as a member of the Sooners and went 3 for 9 from distance, scoring 13 points. So if he was going to have a big game, I’m glad it happened Saturday and not in 2019.
Caleb Love went 4 for 9 on 3-pointers and tallied 16 points to go along with five assists and two steals. Anthony Harris made his lone trey, and, to rub salt in the wound, UVa transfer Justin McKoy also made his one 3-point attempt.
Bacot, Manek, and Love were the Tar Heels’ only double-digit scorers, and no other UNC player put up more than 5 points, but it didn’t matter on a day in which the Cavaliers could barely eclipse the 50-point mark. Virginia found itself down 72-47 with about three minutes to play, and only a 9-0 run at the end lifted it over the 50-point barrier and made the score semi-respectable.
Armando Bacot was too much for the 'Hoos to handle Saturday. (Chris Seward/The News & Observer via Associated Press)
UVa played UNC fairly even in the first half but still found itself down 31-26 at the break. Early in the second half, the Heels built the lead to double digits. The ‘Hoos knocked it down to 7 once but got no closer. Kihei Clark made a 3 to make it 47-38 at the 13:34 mark, but then the Heels went on a 10-0 run to put the game out of reach.
Reece Beekman led the Cavaliers with 13 points on a 6-for-12 effort from the field as he did a nice job of attacking the rim throughout the contest. He also made 1 out of 3 3-point attempts, dished out four assists, collected three rebounds, and had three steals and a block. He had two turnovers.
“[Beekman] did a good job, and we need that,” Bennett said. “We need our perimeter guys to be aggressive, whether it’s scoring or getting in there, but that was good to see [from] him the last couple games: looking to get to the rim, taking a pull-up, [he] took a couple 3s. That part was solid.”
Armaan Franklin recorded 12 points on a 5-for-10 afternoon from the floor, including 1 for 2 beyond the arc, and notched three rebounds, two assists, and a block.
Jayden Gardner put up 10 points on 5-for-10 shooting and posted seven rebounds. He didn’t get to the free throw line after 18 shots from the stripe combined over the previous three games. Virginia went only 2 for 4 from the stripe. Say what you want about Carolina refs, but I doubt the calls mattered too much in the final result, though they did seem to favor the Heels as the game wore on after what felt like to me a fairly even start. Only three fouls were called on UNC in the second half. The Heels didn’t have too many attempts at the line either, though, going 7 for 11.
Clark tallied 9 points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block. He went 2 for 4 from beyond the arc and had two turnovers. Virginia went with the strategy of the past two games and tried to beat the Heels inside the arc. However, it did shoot pretty well from deep, going 6 for 12 on 3s. But overall, the ‘Hoos went 44.6% from the field after shooting better than 50% in the victories over Clemson and Syracuse.
Kadin Shedrick showed his inexperience and had a tough time with Bacot. The North Carolina native did have two blocks, but he didn’t score, managed just two boards, and left the game with a bloody nose as Bacot swung his right elbow into Shedrick’s face while going up for a shot with 13 minutes left in the contest.
The refs ended up saying it was a basketball move and did not assess a flagrant foul or even a normal foul to Bacot. Eh, maybe. Bacot is a savvy player by now in his third year, though, and it isn’t hard to wonder if he threw his elbow out on purpose to possibly make contact with Shedrick. Either way, he probably knew he’d have a good chance at grabbing the rebound on a missed shot (which he did) because he dominated inside. And at that point, Carolina was starting to pull away, and his basket gave the Heels a double-digit lead following Clark’s 3.
Kody Stattmann had another pretty solid game, with 6 points on two made triples plus two boards, a steal, and a block. Carson McCorkle got in the game in the first half and made a jumper, but Bennett pulled him after a turnover instead of letting him play through the mistake. McCorkle finally got back in the game with a couple of garbage minutes and made one more basket.
Francisco Caffaro got 19 minutes but was much more timid and ineffective than he was when the Cavaliers defeated the Tigers on Tuesday. Caffaro finished with 2 points (1 for 2 from the field), a block, and no rebounds. Igor Milicic Jr. played during the game’s final minute — his first action since the Clemson loss — and scored on a putback. Taine Murray got six minutes but missed his only 3-point attempt.
This was a deflating loss after two great wins over ‘Cuse and Clemson. It became obvious early on that Virginia had to slow down either UNC’s offensive rebounding ability or its ability to make 3s, but it wasn’t able to slow down either one. The ‘Hoos did battle in the first half, and for a few minutes in the second half, the result was in doubt, even if the outlook was grim. But after Shedrick got knocked out, the wheels really came off, and I thought Virginia’s effort level kind of waned, so that was disappointing. The ‘Hoos missed quite a few easy shots that could’ve made the score at least a bit more palatable.
“I thought we yielded, and that was frustrating, but we’ll try to grow from it and learn from it,” Bennett said.
Overall, though, it would’ve been very tough imagining this team winning every game of this road trip, but after getting demolished by Clemson on Dec. 22, going 2-1 is a pretty good split. The ACC has a handful of solid teams, but it isn’t scary at all. No. 2 Duke even lost to Miami on Coach K’s court later on Saturday evening. There is a lot of inconsistency in the conference, even for the good teams.
Louisville is 3-1 but had a meh nonconference slate with some questionable losses. Notre Dame is 3-1 and beat UNC but also has a loss to Boston College and a 1-point win over Pittsburgh, like the ‘Hoos do. Wake Forest is 3-2, but we still need a few more games to evaluate the Demon Deacons to see how for real they are in coach Steve Forbes’ second season. They host Duke on Wednesday so we will have a better idea then.
Usually the ‘Hoos improve over the course of the season, so I still like their trajectory and their chances in most ACC games. I was pretty confident going into Chapel Hill after the recent wins, but I also knew an improving team didn’t mean there wouldn’t be setbacks. There will still be fits and starts with this team, but hopefully, the ‘Hoos just continue to win more ACC games than they lose. They’ve got a winnable stretch of games coming up, so they need to take advantage. The back half of the schedule is tougher, with February featuring Miami — which must actually be for real? — twice, Duke twice, and a road game at Virginia Tech. March brings a home game versus Florida State, which is struggling a bit but always gives Virginia issues, and then the regular-season finale is at Louisville.
Virginia returns home for the first time since before Christmas on Wednesday when it faces the Hokies, who have been disappointing so far at 8-6 and 0-3 in the conference. But they aren’t to be taken lightly. They won at Navy by 20 points, and the Midshipmen of course defeated UVa in Charlottesville. Plus, Tech has played UVa close over the years, even when the ‘Hoos have had the decisive advantage.
“Three straight road games is kind of hard,” Beekman said. “It’ll be good to be back at JPJ in front of our families and friends. I can’t wait to play that game.”
“We can’t dwell on this one,” Franklin added. “There’s always going to be another game, so we’re going to … have our day off and come back ready to work and get better.”
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