Cavaliers Upset Carolina

Wahoo fans celebrate!

Sensational team defense, a strong second-half rebounding effort (23-23 after intermission), and solid free-throw shooting (23 of 29) propelled Virginia to a 72-68 upset of No. 23 North Carolina in front of 8,392 at University Hall on Thursday night. UVa trailed for just 9:11 in the game, taking the lead for good on a J.R. Reynolds’ 3-pointer midway through the second half.

“Obviously, I’m very, very proud of our guys and their effort,” UVa coach Dave Leitao said. “To compete and win means a lot for our guys, means a lot obviously for our program at the beginning stages. … I’m proud of the way we toughed it out.”

In the end, Virginia placed three players in double figures and had six players with at least 7 points. Sean Singletary led the way with 18 points and 4 assists, while Reynolds added 16 points, 2 assists and 2 blocks. Laurynas Mikalauskas was in double figures for the first time in ACC play with 10 points; he also had 5 rebounds (all after halftime). Adrian Joseph scored 8 points and added 6 rebounds, while Jason Cain had 7 points, 5 blocks, and 5 rebounds. T.J. Bannister finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.

Laurynas Mikalauskas posted 10 points and 5 rebounds.

The balance on offense was a perfect compliment to the total team effort on defense. The Cavaliers held UNC to 36.2 percent shooting, including a dismal 3 of 15 from 3-point land in the second half. Virginia also blocked 12 shots.

“We expected them to play a lot of zone [but] they guarded us man to man and did a great job,” Heels coach Roy Williams said. “A couple of possessions of zone and that was about it, the rest was man to man and they just guarded the crap out of us.”

With Carolina struggling on the outside, the Cavs were able to stick to their gameplan of surrounding Tyler Hansbrough in the paint – they started double-teaming the freshman early in the first half and relentlessly forced the Tar Heels into tough interior situations. Hansbrough still managed to score 18 points and grab 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to propel the cold shooting Heels.

“The thing that worried me the most coming into the game was foul trouble … because Hansbrough draws so many fouls,” Leitao said. “We went back to doubling the post and obviously gave a little bit of help. A lot of times [Laurynas] just battled him by himself and Tunji [Soroye] did too. Again, you don’t stop real good players like that. He still had 18 and 10, but I thought it was a hard 18 and 10 because they really defended and battled him for every inch of the floor.”

Carolina overcame a 10-point deficit in the first half with a 15-3 surge in the final 9 minutes to take a 29-27 halftime lead. Virginia suffered through a 7:54 field goal drought during that period as the Tar Heels picked up the defensive pressure on the perimeter. Eventually UNC’s scoring burst ballooned to 20-3 as the visitors opened the second half in similar style. That led to a 34-27 Heels’ advantage, their biggest lead of the night.

Things didn’t look good for the Cavs, whose only offense for 13 minutes was a jumper and a free throw from Reynolds.

“What they were doing with all of our sets was just playing on top of everything. I kept yelling at them to make L cuts and create space to get open, but they were playing on top,” Leitao said. “What we did was switch a little bit of our philosophy and just went with our motion and our screening game. … It worked and we gained our confidence back, got some fastbreak baskets out of it, and we were able to sustain ourselves.”

Jason Cain slams home two points during a key second-half run.

For much of the second half, the adjustment mentioned by Leitao started to pay dividends. First it was a Mikalauskas layup (after falling behind 34-27, Virginia looked inside on its next possession and he delivered with a layup), which was followed by a traditional 3-point play from Singletary on a drive into the interior. Singletary scored again in the paint on a fastbreak as the Hoos started to climb back in it. Those plays started a 15-4 run for the Cavaliers as they surged into the lead on a Billy Campbell layup at 14:17 (39-28 UVa) and a Singletary 3 at 13:36 (42-28).

The game would be tied twice more at 42 and 44 before Virginia uncorked another scoring burst, which was once again fueled by attacking the interior. Cain made 2 free throws to start the run before Reynolds gave the Cavs the lead for good with a 3-pointer at 10:38. That trey came courtesy of a Cain kick-out assist when he had a post move cut off along the baseline before firing the cross-court pass to Reynolds. Moments later, Cain added a dunk on a Bannister assist and the hosts held the lead the rest of the way.