UNC 79, Virginia 67
Despite a sluggish start, the Tar Heels, led by Reyshawn Terry, proved too much for Virginia's two man show of Sean Singletary and JR Reynolds. UNC came back from an early 10 point deficit to claim the lead midway through the first half. UNC never trailed after that point. With a win by Boston College in the nightcap, UNC will get a rematch against the only team in which it did not get a chance to revenge a previous ACC loss. The game is at 4pm.
UNC looked rusty. Much was made about having 6 days off since their last game, but I didn't think it would matter much. I guess I was wrong. However, it didn't take long for UNC to pick up where they left off. After going 0-3 from behind the 3 point line early, Reyshawn Terry went 8-13 from the field and 7-7 from the free throw line to score a game high 24 points. Tyler Hansbrough had a relatively quiet game in comparison to his recent performances (primarily because he was double and tripled team), but he still scored 17 points on 5-10 shooting.
Wes Miller had a perfect shooting game. He was 3-3 from behind the hard, 1-1 from inside the arc, and 4-4 from the free throw line. I like those numbers! Let's hope he can keep that up against BC.
Bobby Frasor got in foul trouble early and with .1 second left in the first half, committed his 3rd foul. He played very little in the second half on the way to fouling out with 2:15 left in the game. That means Quentin Thomas got a lot of PT and he continued his improved play of late. He had 6 assists, 2 steals, and only 2 turnovers. He was 0-3 from the floor, but he brought a quickness to the game when guarding Singletary and Reynolds that Frasor just doesn't have.
The refs called a ton of fouls (27 against UVA and 25 against UNC), many of which were questionable touch fouls. I hate to see little fouls like that called when they should just let the teams play. This was especially bad for UNC because UVA made 26-29 free throws. Fortunately, the game didn't come down to a free throw shooting match as we were able to maintain a small advantage until the end.
I'm looking forward to the BC game, but after watching the first half of the BC/Maryland game, it is clear that we have our work cut out for us. BC presents some matchup problems for us and we are going to have to play our best defense of the year to win. I can see BC winning the whole tournament if they continue to play like they did against Maryland. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
