Just 48 hours after coming up short at home against No. 4 Duke, the Virginia men’s basketball team defeated North Carolina 75-64 Monday night at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The No. 3 Cavaliers (20-1, 8-1 ACC) trailed by a point at halftime but steadily pulled away in the last 14 minutes to improve to 8-0 on the road in the 2014-15 season.
North Carolina struck first when sophomore forward Kennedy Meeks laid the ball in with 17:34 to play in the first half and jumped out to a 16-10 lead on junior forward Joel James’ layup just more than five minutes later.
The Cavaliers rallied to tie the score at 18 as sophomore point guard London Perrantes dished out a pair of assists and then scored inside around nine minutes before the break. Virginia then seized its first lead of the evening at 24-23 on junior forward Anthony Gill’s layup at the 7:17 mark.
Meeks put back a miss in close by junior forward Brice Johnson at the first-half buzzer for a 33-32 Tar Heel lead.
Virginia led 42-38 after junior center Mike Tobey laid the ball in off junior guard Justin Anderson’s set-up with 13:50 to play, but North Carolina hung around, cutting the Cavaliers’ brief six-point lead back to four when Johnson dunked with 11:54 remaining.
Virginia then stepped on the gas, scoring nine unanswered for a 57-44 advantage. The Cavaliers did not let up after freshman wing Justin Jackson stopped the run with a jump shot, pushing their lead to 16 on junior guard Malcolm Brogdon’s free throws with 2:20 to play.
Brogdon paced Virginia with 17 points for the second straight game as Virginia placed four players in double figures. Anderson and Perrantes combined for 31 points and 13 assists, while Gill had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Leading scorer junior guard Marcus Paige had a team-high 15 points for North Carolina.
Virginia will play No. 9 Louisville this Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena. Tip-off is set for 7p.m.
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