Ty Jerome leaned against the wall outside the visitor’s locker room in the Smith Center. With black Bose headphones wrapped around his neck, he faced the barrage of questions from the media the same way he just dispatched a barrage of Tar Heel defenders — calmly, with no hint of hesitation.
Jerome's mindset reflected his approach to the game. Then-No. 3 Virginia had been handled by No. 2 Duke on its home floor at John Paul Jones Arena a mere 48 hours ago. Ahead of his next challenge, traveling to No. 9 UNC, which was riding a seven-game win streak, and particularly facing fellow point-guard Coby White, Jerome was unfazed.
“You know, we just played R.J. Barrett, Zion (Williamson), Cam Reddish, Tre Jones, and the game before that, we played Chris Lykes,” Jerome said, his arms crossed. “He’s a really good player, so I don’t want to take anything away from him, but we play those guys every day.”
Bouncing back from a loss to Duke’s Barrett, Williamson, Reddish and Jones, Jerome’s Cavaliers beat North Carolina, 69-61, Monday night. Jerome led Virginia to a come-from-behind win in a hostile Smith Center. He had total command of an efficient offense, pulling back the tempo when the game sped up too fast, driving to the rim and finishing when the Cavaliers needed a bucket, and dishing off to his teammates for big shots, like Kyle Guy’s 3-pointers late in the game.
“He’s really crafty, really smart with the ball, a great point guard,” White said. “He gets everybody involved, gets them in their sets.”
Yet White, fresh off a 33-point performance against Miami, gave Jerome all he could handle in a battle of two of the ACC’s best point guards. Jerome, a junior, finished with 15 points; White, a first-year, finished with 17. White posted two assists, Jerome 11. The two were the engines for their teams' respective offenses.
After a first half in which UNC’s offense sputtered down the stretch, White and teammate Cameron Johnson brought the Tar Heels to life in the second half. White scored the first five points of the second half for the Tar Heels, and in doing so showed off his versatility. The first basket was a knockdown 3-pointer, the second a drive and tough finish at the rim.
“He’s always a threat,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said about the point guard who lined up against his team. “...He’s quick, he’s triple-threat, he can really hit you in transition.”
White and Johnson propelled the Tar Heels to a 10-0 run in the second half and later extended UNC’s lead to seven points.
