A rainy Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville was only made drearier by the sloppy performance put on by the Virginia Cavaliers (20-7, 11-5 ACC) against the visiting #10 North Carolina Tar Heels (20-6, 12-3 ACC). Offense proved to be a struggle for both teams all day long, and after forty minutes of scrappy basketball, North Carolina walked away with a 54–44 victory. Virginia entered the contest hoping to rebound after losing a dismal 75-41 beatdown to their in-state rival Virginia Tech Hokies in what proved to be an all-around struggle in all aspects of the game. Meanwhile, Carolina entered the game on a week’s rest having just beat the Hokies the previous Saturday.
The sold-out John Paul Jones Arena atmosphere was nothing short of electric, but the hype quickly died down as the Cavalier offense had a hard time getting shots to fall, tallying 8 points in the first 17 minutes and shooting 3-for-26 from the floor in the process. However, North Carolina wasn’t doing much better against Tony Bennett’s well-engineered defensive corps. With fifth-year Armando Bacot in foul trouble early, and Wooden Award hopeful R.J. Davis held scoreless in the first half, the Tar Heels were unable to run away with a lead any greater than 10. Much of their offensive production fell into the hands of Cormac Ryan, a lights-out shooter who hit five three-pointers in the first half alone. A brief rally by the Cavaliers brought their scoring total to 16 compared to UNC’s 26 through one half of basketball.
The second half was much more of an evenly matched, back-and-forth affair. Virginia quickly cut the lead back to six on a Reece Beekman layup and a Jordan Minor jumper, but yet another Cormac Ryan three-pointer killed the Hoos’ momentum. After two more minutes of back-and-forth basketball, Carolina broke out on a 7–0 run that stretched the lead to thirteen, their largest of the game. Nonetheless, Virginia managed to stay competitive with a sound defensive performance and better discipline on the offensive side. Still down double digits with under four minutes to play, a well-designed play found Isaac McKneely wide open for a corner three-pointer, and on the following possession, McKneely buried two free throws to bring the deficit back to 5. However, the late-game rally was not soon enough, and North Carolina made the free throw shots they needed to after UVA began fouling to put the game away. Ryan’s eighteen points was a game-high for North Carolina, while Jordan Minor led the Cavaliers in scoring with twelve.
One stat that seems to summarize the game is the fact that Virginia was 5-for-17 on layups during the contest, a testament to the dominance with which the Tar Heels controlled the paint but also to the lack of fundamentality shown by the Cavaliers all day. With the loss, the Hoos have now dropped three of the last four coming off an eight-game win streak, likely placing them back on the NCAA tournament bubble. Still lacking a true statement victory, a win on the road against Duke next Saturday or a deep run in the ACC tournament appears necessary to secure an at-large bid.
In the past two games, UVA has combined for 85 points offensively. For comparison, there are six Division 1 teams that are averaging more than that per game. The Cavaliers’ inability to score as of late is indisputably concerning. For years, a staple of Tony Bennett’s scheme has been using the entire shot clock to find the highest-percentage shot, but recently, a lack of aggression has resulted in the shot clock “trapping” the team into regularly forcing up bad looks. It is becoming ever-increasingly apparent that something needs to happen to create better scoring opportunities for this talented Cavalier roster.
Despite the offensive woes, holding one of the nation’s most explosive scoring teams to a mere 54 points is an impressive feat and a sign that if Virginia can develop a consistent offensive game, they can still hang around with some of the best. As the playoffs quickly approach, this level of defensive dominance could create a problem for a lot of teams. The Cavaliers find themselves on the road on Wednesday at Boston College.
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