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Virginia’s seven-game winning streak over North Carolina has ended. For the first time since 18 February 2017, the Tar Heels beat the Cavaliers and they did it convincingly, beating UVA 74-58 on Saturday afternoon at Chapel Hill.
The UNC game plan is simple. Tar Heels knew they had a tremendous size advantage over the Cavaliers and they capitalized on it from the opening end to the final bell. Almost every Carolina possession involves throwing the ball at Armando Bacot at the post or having Bacot or Brady Manek set the ball high and then rolling it into the basket.
Armando Bacot had perhaps the best performance of his college career, recording 29 points, 21 rebounds, double-double. Bacot was an unstoppable force in the offensive glass, grabbing nine offensive rebounds, two more offensive rebounds than Virginia as a team. North Carolina had 11 offensive rebounds and scored 14 second-chance points.
UNC might be able to beat UVA on its internal advantage alone, but Tar Heels also fire a high percentage of perimeter shots. North Carolina made 11 three of 25 attempts (44.0%). Caleb Love shot 4/9 from deep and scored 16 points and Brady Manek (19 points) went wide, making five of his nine three-point attempts. Manek shooting well from outside the arc is essential for Tar Heels, as it allows Bacot to operate at low post against only one big one. This has also often resulted in smaller guards such as Reece Beekman or Armaan Franklin failing to attempt Bacot’s exit box in the defensive glass.
The first half was quite competitive. UNC’s size advantage gave the Tar Heels the lead but Virginia played well enough at either end of the floor to keep the game out of control and North Carolina led 31-25 at halftime.
Reece Beekman scored seven of his team’s highest 13 points in the first half and finished with four assists, three rebounds and three steals. Armaan Franklin had 12 points and Jayden Gardner added 10. Initially, it looked like Jayden Gardner was going to score at will as Brady Manek had a hard time holding off Gardner, who showed his mid-range play and was able to use his speed and power to get into the ring. However, North Carolina adjusted well and cut Gardner after the break, holding East Carolina’s transfer to just four points in the second half.
North Carolina blew the game wide open in the second half, using some big moves to take over the game and build a 25-point lead. Had Virginia not closed the game 9-0 at an inopportune time, the final score would have better reflected how much UNC overall outperformed UVA in this game.
While Virginia certainly didn’t match up to North Carolina, it was worrying that the game got out of hand in the second half, especially as this isn’t the first time the Cavaliers have lost by such a wide margin this season. The last two wins at Syracuse and Clemson are encouraging signs that Tony Bennett and Wahoos can put things together and become an NCAA Tournament team, but a lopsided loss at Chapel Hill on Saturday shows that UVA still has a lot to do with both. end of the floor.
With that loss, Virginia fell to 9-6 overall and 3-2 in ACC play. After a three-game run, the Cavaliers return home to take on Virginia Tech on Wednesday at 9 p.m.
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Sources 2/ https://www.si.com/college/virginia/basketball/virginia-basketball-falls-to-north-carolina-74-58 The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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