Terrible start dooms Virginia in Chapel Hill

By Jerry Ratcliffe

After surging North Carolina reeled off its third straight win on Saturday against visiting Virginia, Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis was asked what was the reason it took UNC so long to unlock its recent success.

“Who cares,” Davis snapped back. “It’s here now.”

Carolina has led for 113 of the last 120 minutes in the three wins, including all 40 against UVA, to play its way onto the NCAA tournament bubble (17-11, 10-6 ACC).

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers got off to a horrendous start, falling behind 21-2 before eventually losing 81-66 and dropping to 13-14, 6-10 ACC.

Give Virginia credit for not throwing in the towel, drawing to within single digits several times the rest of the way. However, the Wahoos were haunted by the same old problems, particularly rebounding.

Carolina outrebounded UVA, 35-21 (the Cavaliers had only 3 offensive rebounds), outscored Virginia in the paint, 36-22, outscored the Wahoos 17-2 on second chance points. Anytime UVA made a run, the Tar Heels answered.

Virginia gave up a season-high, first-half 46 points and trailed by a dozen at the break. The Cavaliers enjoyed an 11-2 run during a three-minute span in the second half, cutting Carolina’s lead to 55-47, but couldn’t continue to get stops as the Heels’ lead ballooned to 20 with just over six minutes to play.

“When you dig a hole that deep, you’re going to be climbing uphill the entire game, especially against a team that plays with that pace offensively,” Ron Sanchez said. “We’ve got to get a better start.”

Carolina made 7 of its first 9 shots from the 3-point arc and finished 9 of 16, led by Jae’Lyn Withers, who was 4 for 6, and Ian Jackson, who made all three of his triple attempts. In all, five Tar Heels scored in double figures, with Withers and Jackson each leading the way with 16 points.

Sanchez said the Cavaliers were aware of UNC’s ability to shoot the long ball, but didn’t close out well most of the time, and that Carolina’s shooters made some difficult shots.

“I think our attention to detail has been more consistent,” said UNC’s Davis. “I think getting to the offensive glass has been a huge change for us. We’ve gotten second-chance opportunities. That’s been huge.”

Blake Buchanan led Virginia on the boards with 6 rebounds and redshirt freshman Anthony Robinson grabbed 5 in only 17 minutes off the bench. The rest of the team managed only 10 rebounds.

“We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to be more physical,” Sanchez said of the rebounding. “I think rebounding is an isolated, personal, individual thing that you can drill all day, but at some point just has to go get it.”

There were few bright spots for the Cavaliers. Freshman Jacob Cofie scored 9 points, while sophomore Dai Dai Ames, who was in foul trouble, continued his string of double-figures scoring with 12 points (all in the second half), but it was junior Isaac McKneely who continued to create a buzz with his offense.

While McKneely was a mere 2 for 7 from the 3-point arc, he was 5 for 12 for the day and hit all five of his free-throw attempts for a team-high 17 points.

McKneely became the 52nd Cavalier in history to reach the 1,000 career points plateau, while climbing UVA’s single-season, 3-pointers list with 84, passing Kyle Guy’s 83 for sixth place.

“I’m thrilled for iMac, that’s a great landmark to break 1,000 points. He’s such a key figure for us. When he doesn’t play well, we struggle,” Sanchez said. “He’s done a really good job of carrying that load. He gets the best defender of the opposing team. You saw today, they were holding and grabbing. He still shows up and produces. He is the face of the program.”

Virginia’s task doesn’t get any easier as the Cavaliers travel to Wake Forest on Wednesday night for a 9 p.m. start.