For Virginia, Monday’s win at North Carolina was accomplished with some feats it was not able to pull off against Duke on Saturday.
While the early minutes of this game showed that the Tar Heels were intent on copying the recipe the Blue Devils used in defeating the Hoos, Virginia’s defense rebounded in the second half. Duke dominated the Cavaliers in the paint on Saturday, until the Blue Devils needed to shoot the three because of the scoreboard. North Carolina scored 12 of its first 18 points in the paint, en route to 18 first-half points inside. On the opposite end, the Cavaliers settled for jump shots early and North Carolina got off to a hot start and gave Virginia a dose of Déjà vu.
However, in the second half, the Virginia team we have seen all season re-emerged. Of Virginia’s first 22 points in the second half, 20 were in the paint. Then, in the final eight minutes, Virginia overcame another Duke bugaboo – the zone. While the first few possessions against the North Carolina 2-3 zone were lackluster, the Hoos responded nicely to not lose a late lead, as they had done 48 hours earlier.
Overall, the zone does seem to limit the activity of Justin Anderson and Malcom Brogdon, but Virginia got quality shots on Monday, unlike the final minutes of Saturday. Virginia was a little more consistent in patiently working the ball against the zone — that patience disappeared at crunch time against Coach K’s group.
Coming off one of his toughest shooting games of the season, Anderson also regrouped well in Monday night’s win. Anderson, who appears to be developing into a star, knocked down 6-of-10 shots on Monday after hitting just 5-of-14 on Saturday. For the season, Anderson is shooting over 49 percent from the field.
While the defense stepped up in the second half, the final two to three minutes continued to loom as a concern for Virginia. Closing out the game was somewhat painful again on Monday night, though not to the extent witnessed against Duke. While the Cavaliers were not able to stretch their lead over Carolina beyond double figures to put the game away, the defense was strong enough to keep the game under control for Tony Bennett’s team. Virginia held North Carolina to 38 percent shooting from the floor after the Tar Heels shot over 50 percent in the first half.
Virginia again allowed an opponent to score well over its 50.2-points-allowed-per-game average. However, the Cavs’ shooting percentage defense was much better than Saturday: North Carolina hit 45 percent of its shots; Saturday against Duke marked the first time in 44 games Virginia allowed a team to shoot over 50 percent from the floor, and the first time in the last 45 conference games. While 45 percent is still higher than the Hoos are accustomed to, it is at least a step in the right direction.
Another issue the Hoos must confront is how dominant that North Carolina was on the boards, outrebounding Virginia 32-19. This will have to be shored up quickly — allowing extra shots can doom a team in March or at any other point in the season.
While Monday night’s win was not completely clean for Virginia, it was certainly an impressive road victory achieved with a short turnaround from a nasty loss just two days earlier. Some of the flaws that were exposed on Saturday were adjusted to… and it’s just in time for Saturday’s battle with another ranked opponent in Louisville.
