Written by Chip Paterson at CBSSports.com
North Carolina had won four straight and captured at least a share of the ACC regular-season championship. The Tar Heels had a chance to claim that outright league title against Virginia in Charlottesville on Monday night, but that opportunity faded along with UNC’s efficient offense in a 53-43 loss.
The setting wasn’t ideal for Roy Williams’ group: the next-to-last game in a tough final stretch of games, a Saturday-Monday turnaround and the final test before the highly anticipated rematch with Duke in Chapel Hill. Williams values the regular-season crowns — “that’s one way to get a banner up,” he says — and brought in a team that’s now in the No. 1 seed discussion for the NCAA Tournament. But it didn’t take long for Virginia to establish dominance with its defense and set North Carolina down a familiar path to defeat.
It’s the worst loss for North Carolina since getting beat by 15 at Miami on Jan. 28. In that game, North Carolina had just 22 points at halftime, the lowest mark of the season. Virginia held the Tar Heels to just 23 before halftime, and got 18 of its 27 first-half points off 12 turnovers. It’s also the fourth-lowest scoring total (43) in the ACC era.
That’s the fourth-fewest points UNC has scored in the ACC era. It’s the fewest in a game since Feb. 24, 1979 against Duke (40 points).
— Sherrell D. McMillan (@RellDMC) February 28, 2017
No one this season has scored more points off North Carolina turnovers than Virginia did, and that inability to take care of the ball allowed the Wahoos to make up for the gap in offensive ability between these two teams. It’s not realistic to expect UNC to play so poorly in the ACC tournament, NCAA Tournament or even against Duke on Saturday night, but it’s a good sign for Virginia — particularly heading into the postseason — to see their defensive effort power take down one of college basketball’s top teams.
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