In the penultimate game in the regular season at John Paul Jones Area for the Cavaliers, a crucial game for NCAA Tournament seeding, sloppy offense and poorly executed defense characterized Virginia’s 82-70 defeat to No. 21 North Carolina. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels broke their program record for most three-pointers made in a game, knocking down 16 of their 24 attempts.
From the opening tip, it was clear the Cavaliers (19-9, 11-6 ACC) lacked urgency. Little energy was evident in the offense, which appeared one beat slow each possession. Poor shot selection led to a poor shooting percentage, shooting just 30 percent from the field in the first half.
North Carolina (24-6, 13-4 ACC) got off to a hot start, opening the game up on a 9-0 run, forcing Virginia to call a timeout less than three minutes into the game. The Cavaliers began 0-for-9 from the field and didn’t get their first points of the game until senior guard Paris Clark hit a three-pointer with just under six minutes left in the first frame.
While Virginia fought back to cut the score, it was never enough to shift the momentum. By the two-minute mark in the second quarter, the Cavaliers found themselves down 19 points, struggling to get anything going on offense.
“It was a rough start,” Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We wanted to set the tone in our gym, but … we were trying to … get out of that hole the whole game. We can't start like that … I think our players understand that it was a rough start, and [North Carolina] capitalized on that.”
The second half picked up exactly where the first half ended — poorly executed defense by Virginia and three-point shotmaking from the Tar Heels, with sophomore guard Elina Aarnisalo hitting her third three-pointer of the night on three attempts. A 6-0 run featuring two fastbreak layups from sophomore forward Breona Hurd seemed to shift the momentum only temporarily.
Every time it seemed like the Cavaliers would try to claw back into the game, North Carolina would respond with one three-pointer after another.
“They got some open threes there when we were in man, but again … they capitalized off of them,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “They just hit big shots time and time again.”
Late in the third period, Virginia chipped away at the score, elevated by three-pointers from junior guard Kymora Johnson and forced turnovers from a press that the Cavaliers enforced heavily in the second half. Johnson led all scorers with 22 points, 15 of which knocked down behind the arc.
“I thought we had some good possessions in the press, and I thought we had some where they [North Carolina] got kick-aheads and ended up hitting threes,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
Virginia trimmed down the lead to 13 with the score being 60-47 after three quarters. After the teams traded baskets through the first three minutes into the fourth, graduate guard Romi Levy, another highlight for the Cavaliers Thursday, nailed an elbow three with six minutes and 47 seconds on the fast break to cut the lead to single digits, making the score 66-57. Levy recorded a season-high of 15 points and five rebounds.
However, as per the entire matchup, Aarnisalo continued to notch critical buckets when the Tar Heels needed to eliminate any sort of Cavalier momentum. She finished with a career-high 20 points, going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. To squander the Cavaliers irrevocably, North Carolina finished the game making five out of their last seven shots.
Now, with one game remaining in the regular season, this loss marked a missed opportunity for Virginia. For a team coming off a statement win against then-No. 8 Louisville on the road, a win Thursday could have solidified the Cavaliers’ chances of making the NCAA Tournament. As a bubble team, a rematch against its in-state rival Virginia Tech has high stakes for March.
Virginia hosts the Hokies at JPJ for the final half of the Smithfield Commonwealth Clash on senior day. The game kicks off Sunday, March 1, at noon on the ACC Network.
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