Tar Heels fall to Virginia in ACC opener

CHARLOTTESVILLE — It’s only fitting that a foul call — and not a dunk or a 3-pointer — first brought the John Paul Jones Arena crowd to its feet Sunday night.

After all, Sunday’s ACC opener between Virginia and North Carolina wasn’t a battle of points as much as it was a clash of intensity. It was a raw, defensive fight — the kind of battle that the slow, meticulous Cavaliers specialize in.

It was a battle that North Carolina was wholly unprepared for.

Any momentum that UNC gained after its upset of No. 20 UNLV last Saturday met its end at the hands of the Cavaliers as the Tar Heels fell 61-52 to one of the top defensive units in the nation.

“They were better than we were offensively. They were better than we were defensively,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “They were more alert, more aggressive … They dominated both ends of the floor, particularly in the second half.”

In the first half, the Cavaliers (11-3, 1-0 ACC) were perhaps a bit too aggressive, tallying seven quick fouls and turning the ball over nine times. But UNC (10-4, 0-1) couldn’t capitalize on its opponents’ transgressions.

The Tar Heels shot just 32 percent from the field and only 58 percent from the free-throw line. And in the final five minutes of the half, they tallied a flurry of six fouls — the first of which elicited a standing ovation from the agitated crowd.

Still, UNC scraped by with a 25-24 halftime lead, and a rejuvenated-looking Tar Heel squad built that lead to 34-26 three minutes into the second half.

But then it all began to unravel.

“At the start of the second half, I think we were really into it,” said sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo, who tallied 10 points and seven rebounds. “But I think we just got complacent as a team offensively and defensively and allowed the crowd to get back into it.”

UNC finished shooting just 37 percent from the field against a defense that entered the game with the second best scoring defense in the nation — allowing 50.7 points per game.

Virginia particularly pressured UNC on the perimeter, making it difficult for the Tar Heels to move the ball inside and forcing them to settle for jump shots instead.

Meanwhile, the UNC defense had difficulty guarding its own perimeter, allowing the Cavaliers to make eight of their 14 3-point attempts, including a couple of open looks from Virginia’s leading scorer, Joe Harris.

“We were active on the defensive end in the first half,” junior Reggie Bullock said. “In the second half, there were glimpses of great defense, but it wasn’t good when we actually needed a stop.”

Bullock, who missed the UNLV game with a concussion, was one of the few Tar Heels to produce offensively. He was sharp from behind the arc, sinking four of six attempts and finishing with 22 points — one shy of his career high.

But while Bullock was seemingly unfazed by Virginia’s defensive pressure, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of his team, which struggled to overcome the mismatch of play styles.

“That’s what I told my team, ‘We can’t play their game because they’re a slow offensive team,’” Bullock said. “They’re looking for their sets. They’re trying to find shooters. But we gotta get the ball out of transition and push the tempo.

“But it happened to be a low-scoring game, and they got the best of us tonight.”