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UNC basketball shifts momentum with statement road win over Virginia
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- UNC basketball shifts momentum with statement road win over Virginia
After a rough January in which North Carolina appeared to be slipping out of the ACC race, the Tar Heels traveled to Charlottesville and changed the conversation.
Before Saturday, the Tar Heels had a 3-3 record in conference play and had lost all three of their league road games, largely because of poor defense. They ranked 16th in field-goal percentage allowed (49.7%), 17th in points allowed per game (85.4) and defensive efficiency (120.5), and last in 3-point field-goal percentage defense (44.9%).
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Head coach Hubert Davis faced heavy criticism for UNC's struggles to the point that star player Caleb Wilson had to step in and share some of the responsibility. Whether the problem was coaching or poor play from the players, Davis' seat was starting to warm in Chapel Hill.
That changed this week as No. 22 North Carolina (16-4, 4-3 ACC) not only beat Notre Dame convincingly on Wednesday in Chapel Hill but also went on the road and knocked off No. 14 Virginia , a team many viewed as the second-best in the ACC behind Duke . It was also just UNC's second win at John Paul Jones Arena in its last 10 road meetings against the Cavaliers.
At first, Saturday looked like another poor first-half performance, similar to the Tar Heels' three previous road losses. Virginia controlled the game and led by 16 points with 2:05 remaining in the first half.
But Carolina gained momentum in the final two minutes before the break. A Seth Trimble free throw, a 3-pointer from Luka Bogavac with 55 seconds left and another 3 from Derek Dixon in the final seconds cut UVA's lead to 43-34 at halftime. Dixon's basket was his first made field goal after missing his first four shots.
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"Yeah, that was big," Davis said when asked about Bogavac and Dixon's 3-pointers before the half. "I think we were down 15. And then Luka hit a three, and then Derek hit a three. We were actually looking for the pop for the big. [They switched] and actually took the play away, and Derek just made a basketball play and went one-on-one and hit a three over a seven-footer. So I think going into the half only down by nine was huge momentum."
The second half belonged to Carolina. The Tar Heels outscored the Wahoos 51-37 after the break, shooting 63.3% from the field and 45.5% from 3-point range. They posted an effective field-goal percentage of 71.6%, up from 57.3% in the first half.
They did that against one of the nation's stingiest defenses. Virginia leads the ACC in field-goal percentage defense (38.1%), 3-point field-goal percentage defense (28.9%) and effective field-goal defense (43.5%).
Jarin Stevenson scored all 17 of his points in the second half, going 6-of-9 from the field and 2-for-4 from 3-point range. Trimble added 11 of his 16 points after halftime, making all four of his shots, including two from beyond the arc. Wilson also reached double figures after the break, scoring 10 of his team-high 20 points in the second half.
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Dixon finished with 11 points and seven assists, with eight of those points and six of those assists coming after halftime, marking the biggest performance of the freshman's young career since stepping into the starting point guard role .
Though he was quiet in the second half with only three points, Bogavac's 11 off the bench were crucial in stabilizing Carolina's offense.
You could sense the mindset shift in the locker room during Davis' halftime challenge.
"I don't think the energy was gone in the first half," Davis said about the team's initial effort. "I think Virginia's physicality overwhelmed us. And I told them, I said, the only route is you raise both of those fists and you start swinging. You've got to compete. They're not going anywhere. If you wanna win this game, it's going to be won in the trenches, making tough plays on both ends. And I felt like in the second half, we did that."
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After more than two weeks of criticism over their poor January play, Davis now has his team in position to shift the narrative.
North Carolina will play another road game against a struggling Georgia Tech team next Saturday, giving the Tar Heels a week to rest and refocus after a significant road win. February, though, will be UNC's most challenging stretch, with road games at Miami and NC State plus matchups against No. 5 Duke, No. 23 Louisville and a well-coached, tricky Virginia Tech squad.
The final two regular-season games include a home date with No. 18 Clemson and a trip to Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. Those contests will help determine whether this week's surge is a brief spark or the start of a sustained run.
For now, one road win in January doesn't erase the struggles that came before it or lessen the difficulty of what lies ahead. But in Charlottesville, North Carolina finally looked like a team willing to meet the challenge rather than shy away from it. If the Tar Heels carry this mindset forward, this stretch might be remembered not as the moment their season unraveled, but as the night it truly started.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Tar Heels find their footing at Virginia
