UNC 68, Virginia 72
For the third game in a row, UNC showed its youth with sloppy play and an inability to step up offensively which resulted in a second straight defeat. We had yet another slow start -- Virginia was up 9-19 early on. If it wasn't for Tyler Hansbrough, we'd be in some major trouble this year. He continued his dominant play and provides the only semblance of consistency. He led the team in scoring again with 18 points on 7-14 shooting.
I hate to highlight this again, but David Noel and Reyshawn Terry struggled mightily in the first half. Terry fouled a 3 point shooter for the second game in a row. Noel had what seemed like turnover after turnover (he led the team with 6). I've said it before, but he has to be smarter with his passes. Danny Green picked up the slack in the first half scoring 8 points (2 three pointers and a 2) within a span of a couple of minutes.
It was all tied at 24 with 6:33 to go in the first half and we got our first lead (27-25) with 3:14 to go.
Virginia doubled and sometimes tripled team Hansbrough. Anytime he'd get the ball, guys would swarm him. He made a few amazing baskets despite the increased pressure. However, he did commit 4 turnovers primarily in faulty passes after being double-teamed. I believe we are going to see more of this type of defensive from other teams. Hansbrough is our only consistent offensive threat so it makes sense to focus on him defensively. He'll need to make better passes to the open man and other guys on the team will need to do a better job of sinking shots.
Following our standard MO, during the first 10 minutes of the second half we picked up the defensive intensity significantly. We forced 2 straight shot clock violations on Virginia. VA went 8 minutes without scoring a field goal, but we weren't able to establish a lead.
At about the 9 minute mark Virginia went on a run and UNC never was able to catch up. We were down 9 with 8 to go and clawed back to be down just 5 with 2 to go, but we ran out of time.
An embarrassing stat worth mentioning is blocks. Virginia had a whopping 12 blocked shots, many coming in the final minutes.
Other key stats:
+ Rebounds: 45 (UNC), 37 (UVA)
- Free throws made: 10 (UNC), 23 (UVA)
- Pts from the bench: 14 (UNC), 23 (UVA)
