You don't want to set the bar too high too soon for Dave Leitao's squad but there were a lot of people saying, "signature win," when it came to Virginia's 72-68 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday night. The magic of University Hall was on display once again in the arena's final season as the Hoos were able to hold off the #23 ranked Tar Heels.
A victory over the defending national champions is a big deal regardless of how many player they lost due to the NBA and graduation. Most UVa fans can remember last year's thrashing at the hands of the Tar Heels in U-Hall before a national television audience. Thursday night the upperclassmen got a taste of revenge against the relatively young UNC squad. The guards lead the charge once again for the Cavaliers as Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds dominated their freshman counterparts thoroughly all evening. Singletary scored 18 points and handed out 4 assists on the night while Reynolds had 16 points and 6 rebounds.
While the backcourt headed the victory it was the overall team effort that the Cavaliers put forth that keyed the team and the fans in U-Hall. Jason Cain was active once again with 7 points, 5 boards, and most impressively 5 blocked shots. Cain had some key stops late in the game as the Hoos held off a late charge. Also providing a nice spark for the Cavaliers was freshman Laurynas Mikalauskas. The 6'8 power forward used his strength and hustle to come up with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Three of those boards came on the offensive end and the young Lithuanian played to the crowd for more noise and support from the home crowd after his buckets.
Another great sign for the Hoos was the presence of junior point guard T.J. Bannister who gave a huge lift to the team in his 10 minutes of play. The Florida native had his best game of the season with 7 points and 2 assists. Bannister will be a key component to the success of the Cavaliers as they continue through ACC play by giving the duo of Reynolds and Singletary a brief rest from time to time.
Tyler Hansbrough is bottled up by a trio of UVa defenders in Adrian Joseph, Tunji Soroye, and Jason Cain.
For the Tar Heels freshman Tyler Hansbrough continued his stellar play with 18 points and 10 rebounds while senior David Noel had 14 points and 10 boards. Junior swingman Reyshawn Terry was the only other Tar Heel in double digits with 11 points and 6 rebounds for Roy Williams' team. The achilles heel for the Heels was their inability to get any consistency from the perimeter. Their poor shooting allowed the Cavaliers to stay out front in the end and hold on for the win.
Afterwards Dave Leitao had a few comments. "Obviously I’m very, very proud of our guys and their effort and ability to hang in there. I have the utmost respect, probably after Coach Calhoun; there is nobody in this sport that I respect more than Roy Williams. I feel the way he conducts his business and the way he is as a man, he represents all that’s good about our sport."
The win pushes UVa's record to 9-6 overall and 3-2 in ACC play while UNC stands at (10-4, 2-2).
The Hoos will next face the Miami Hurricanes next Tuesday at home. The Hurricanes are a dangerously athletic team and Dave Leitao will have to hone his team's defense in to try and slow down the Hurricanes. Hoo fans can celebrate the victory over the next few days but it's back to the drawing board for the players and coaches immediately. To the staff and players HooNation.com says job well done.
HooNation's player of the game award goes to...the entire UVa team as they pulled together and all played vital roles in tonight's victory. We'd also like to recognize the fan support that the team received tonight. It conjured up memories of years past when U-Hall was a place that no team wanted to visit. We spoke with a few of the players after the game and it was the one remark made by each and every one of them concerning tonight's victory. UVa fans...keep it up!
Notes of Interest
-The Cavaliers were outrebounded 37-31
-UVa had 12 blocked shots on the night
-The Hoos shot 79% (23-29) from the free throw line
-Both teams shot poorly from the field (37.9% for UVa and 36.2% for UNC)
-UNC started 3 freshmen (Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard, and Bobby Frasor)
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