UNC basketball rolls to 63-43 win over Virginia, advances to ACC tournament semifinal
Virginia is normally the team with the disruptive defense making an opponent struggle to run its offense. But North Carolina gave the Cavaliers a dose of what that feels like in its 63-43 win during the ACC tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.
The No. 3 seed Tar Heels (24-8) held the No. 6 seed Cavaliers to just 13 points in the first half on 5-for-27 shooting. It was the fewest points allowed in a first half during the shot clock era in ACC tournament history. And the 43 total points allowed were also the fewest in an ACC tournament game in the shot clock era, which began in 1985-86.
“I thought where we got our confidence and our strength was us continuing to get defensive stops,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “And even though, from an offensive standpoint, it took us a while to get in a rhythm, I felt like our defense was so good that allowed us to be successful.”
Carolina forward Brady Manek shot 7-for-11 in the first half and outscored UVA by himself in the first half with 19 points. It was the first time a UNC player outscored a team in a half since Reggie Bullock had 21 points to Maryland’s 20 in a 62-52 win on Jan. 19, 2013.
“I was just playing basketball, making shots, getting to open spots,” Manek said. “A lot of my shots don’t come from what I do, it’s from what everybody else does for me. Having guys on the floor that are also threats gets me more space, more time and more chances to be open.”
Manek finished with 21 points, but helped the Heels avoid the same slow starts that plagued the other top three seeds that earned double byes in the tournament. Both No. 1 seed Duke and No. 2 seed Notre Dame trailed at halftime and No. 4 seed Miami only led No. 13 seed Boston College by two.
Here’s what we learned from Carolina’s win:
Black’s defensive versatility
There’s a reason why Leaky Black was named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team, and why he had a good case for being the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. The 6-foot-8 senior matched up with 5-foot-10 UVA point guard Kihei Clark.
“Our physicality from the beginning, our intensity, really took them out of their flow,” Black said. “They’re a rhythm team, the offense that they run, our physicality with them really made them struggle.”
Clark is the one player who really makes the Cavaliers go. In disrupting Clark, Black essentially helped shut down their entire offense. Clark missed his first five shots from the field and had two turnovers in the first half.
Clark finished with seven points, four assists, three turnovers and a lot of frustration.
“One of the differences from the first time that we played Virginia, I felt like the offense went through Clark a lot more, especially in late clock situations,” Davis said. “I just wanted our best defensive on Clark. We felt like his size and his athleticism would bother him.”
Passing the rock
No one player can be ball dominant and beat Virginia’s defense. The Heels kept the ball moving and had 15 assists on their first 20 made baskets. They finished with 17 assists on 25 baskets.
In Carolina’s 74-58 win in the regular season, it had 19 assists on 28 makes.
R.J. Davis led the way for the Heels with six assists. Caleb Love had five assists and just one turnover. The Heels are 14-0 this season when he has at least five assists. It also made their record 13-0 when Black has at least three assists.
Bacot moving up the record books
UNC forward Armando Bacot had 10 points and 11 rebounds to set a program record with 24 double-doubles in a season. Bacot broke a tie with Brice Johnson who had 23 the 2015-16 season.
Bacot also moved past Sean May and Antawn Jamison in the single-season rebounding into third place in single-season rebounding. Bacot now sits at 398, which is just one behind Tyler Hansbrough and 18 behind Brice Johnson, who set the record at 416.
No signs of a hangover
Carolina didn’t play like a team coming off its biggest win of the season. Yes, the win over Duke in the regular season finale was much-needed for their NCAA Tournament resume as well as to build confidence after the Heels had previously lost to every ranked team they faced outside of Chapel Hill.
UNC didn’t play as if it were still celebrating that win. The Heels came out focused and were sharp enough to essentially put the game away in the first half.
“So many people asked how are you going to bounce back and how are you going to adjust after the emotions from the game this past Saturday?” Davis said. “I just didn’t understand that. It was an emotional game. But it was just a game.”
Davis said Carolina’s focus was “squarely on the ACC tournament” and his only reference to beating Duke was to validate the win by winning again.
“That’s something that we’ve talked about the entire season is validating a good performance, validating a win, validating who we are as a team,” Davis said.
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 11:36 PM.