Tar Heels Trample Cavaliers

J.R. Reynolds surpassed 1,000 career points during the road loss against UNC.

In Virginia’s game at North Carolina on Wednesday night, junior guard J.R. Reynolds scored his 1,000th career point with a second-half jumper. It was one of precious few positive moments in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels grabbed a double-digit lead early and never looked back en route to a dominant 99-54 victory.

For the Cavaliers, it was the second straight road loss of embarrassing proportions, a pair of ACC defeats by a combined 71 points. The Hoos’ last outing at Clemson followed a similar pattern as the Tigers pulled ahead early and rolled to a 26-point win, 90-64. That means Virginia allowed 189 combined points (94.5 points average) against two teams that combined for just 126 points (63.0 points average) in Charlottesville, where UVa defeated each team. The home and away difference continued the head-scratching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act for the Cavaliers, who fell to 1-7 on the ACC road. Virginia is 6-1 at home in the conference.

“We were not prepared,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said on the Virginia Sports Network. “Physically, mentally, team-wise – not prepared, not prepared to play. … It’s the same way we’ve played the last two games.”

The Cavs led 7-5 in the early moments of the game before North Carolina stampeded to a double-digit advantage with a 22-5 outburst. So what happened?

“Everything. The same thing that went wrong in the last game and that’s been going wrong in practice,” Leitao said. “My fear is that we’ve given, we’ve given, we’ve given and we’re trying to draw more from these guys and right now they’re not giving it.”

Senior David Noel led the surge by scoring 16 of the Tar Heels’ first 23 points. He finished Senior Night with a career-high 26 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point land to go with 4 assists and 3 rebounds.

“When the game started, we gave him two open jump shots and he made them. It was Senior Night and he probably felt like he could conquer the world. The rim got larger for him and we just didn’t defend him. That’s what good players do,” Leitao said. “He’s what college basketball [is about] … a senior captain, a leader of a team that’s going to do very well in the NCAA Tournament. That’s all you can ask for.”

Noel had plenty of help. In total, Carolina placed 10 players in the scoring column, including 7 Heels with 7 points or more. In addition to Noel, Reyshawn Terry had 17 points and 7 rebounds, while Tyler Hansbrough collected 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Also, Marcus Ginyard had 10 points, while Bobby Frasor added 8 to with 7 points each from Quenton Thomas and Danny Green.

Most of those points came courtesy of solid passing as UNC put on a dazzling display of team basketball. The Heels recorded 24 assists on 35field goals. Noel, Thomas, and Wes Miller led the way with 4 helpers each. That was part of a statistical bonanza for the hosts, who shot 59.3 percent, outrebounded Virginia 45-28, and added 8 blocks as well.

“Take your pick: 60 percent shooting, 45-28 [in rebounding], lack of defense, turnovers. Pick your poison. They’re all in the same pot of stew,” Leitao said.

After falling behind 27-12 in the first 10 minutes, the Cavalier did put a dent in the Carolina advantage with a small 7-4 run. A critical scoring swing followed as Virginia’s comeback hopes faded in a matter of moments. With a chance to cut the lead to 10 with less than 6 minutes to play in the half, Reynolds forced a baseline drive and turned the ball over out of bounds.

On the next possession, Ginyard drained a 3-pointer to make it 34-19. That sparked a 10-0 UNC burst as Hansbrough and Green scored a pair of buckets before Noel bookended the run with another 3 at the 2:47 mark. That trifecta made it 41-19 and the rout was on.

Has Carolina improved that much?

“[North Carolina is] a thousand times better. The stats prove it and obviously their play proves it as well,” Leitao said.

Billy Campbell had 3 assists in the loss to the Tar Heels.

Reynolds led the Cavaliers with 19 points (7-of-17 shooting) to go with 3 assists. Sean Singletary added 14 points and 3 assists, while Laurynas Mikalauskas had 8 points and 4 rebounds. Jason Cain played only 6 minutes due to a “coach’s decision. That’s [a] very specific reason,” Leitao said. Cain had 4 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

As a team, Virginia shot just 32.4 percent, including a dismal 16.7 percent from 3-point range.

“I’ve said it many, many times. When you get an open shot, you make or miss it based on whether your mind, your body, and your heart are into the game. If it’s not there, you miss more shots than you make. You get that from other parts of the game and we haven’t done that,” Leitao said.

Virginia will try to regroup by Sunday’s finale with Maryland. That game is the final regular season contest in University Hall as the Cavaliers prepare to move to the John Paul Jones Arena next season. The question is whether these last two demoralizing defeats will deflate the Cavaliers’ enthusiasm going into that final contest.

“We’re going to get in the gym and figure that out – [whether] we have any confidence left in us,” Leitao said. “It fell apart. Everything that we’ve done is not there right now. We’ve got to get back to the gym and correct it. … I don’t know if fatigue is part of it or not, physical or mental, but obviously this is not the same team it was a little over a week ago and we’ve got to get back to the gym and try to correct that.”

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